Meralco seeks approval to recover P8 billion under-recovery

Manila Electric Co. has asked the Energy Regulatory Commission to allow it to collect its net under-recovery amounting to about P8 billion.

This is equivalent to P0.2182 per kilowatthour to be recovered in 12 months.

Meralco filed its application with the ERC for its under-recoveries in the generation rate (P6.413 billion), transmission rate (P607.375 million), system loss (P764.168 million) , and real property taxes (P228.875 million).

Meralco said the costs are all pass-through costs and it should not earn any income nor incur any losses from its imposition.

Meanwhile, Meralco said it has an over-recovery in the local franchise tax (P27.337 million), lifeline subsidy (P776,623) and senior citizen discounts and subsidy at (P2.504 million).

Meralco filed the application with the ERC as part of the automatic cost adjustment and true-up mechanisms for the period 2020-2022 from 48 distribution utilities (DUs) in Luzon.

ERC will evaluate the applications to validate the recovery of pass-through costs implemented by the DUs and confirm the true-up of other pass-through charges, if any.

According to the ERC, 20 Luzon DUs have yet to submit their applications. Failure to do so may result in the imposition of administrative sanctions and penalties.