Sen. Risa Hontiveros urged the Department of Energy (DoE) and Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) Monday to review the surcharges that are passed on to electricity consumers especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hontiveros said that while she welcomed power distributor giant Manila Electric Co.’s (Meralco) announcement it will implement a relaxed “case-to-case” basis policy for disconnecting consumers unable to pay their bills, electricity rates in the country remain high.

“There must be a comprehensive review of these surcharges being shouldered by consumers. One of these is the controversial 15 percent weighted average cost of capital (WACC) that ERC gave for State Grid of China and its local partners in the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP),” Hontiveros said in a statement.

“It’s almost double the eight percent average global standard in terms of transmission rate,” the senator added.

She said power suppliers and the NGCP must share the burden of utmost sacrifice especially when the economy is gearing towards recovery.

“Our rates are the second highest in Asia. Even if majority of consumers are updated with their payments, there are still those who are forced to loan just to ensure their electricity wouldn’t be cut off,” the lawmaker said.

“Perhaps our power firms should share a bigger part of the burden since they continue to enjoy higher return on investment and remain profitable even during the pandemic,” she added.

In 2019 alone, Hontiveros said that the combined revenue of power generation suppliers reached almost P360 billion and is expected to continuously increase until 2040.

She also noted that in 2017, the total earnings of power generation, transmission, and distribution suppliers reached at least P897 billion.

NGCP was also able to divide among its shareholders a total of P188 billion in corporate dividends in just 10 years of their 25-year contract of running the country’s power transmission system.

Hontiveros said she hopes that the government and the whole energy sector would help ensure that power consumers would have access to affordable electricity rates.

“Because aside from high electricity costs, consumers also face unemployment and high cost of basic goods and services. It’s unfair that ordinary consumers are deep in debt while they are trying to overcome their payment obligations.”