The Senate has approved on third and final reading the bill extending the lifeline rate subsidy in electricity bills.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, chair of the Senate Committee on Energy, said low-income households can look forward to a continued subsidy in their electricity consumption bills in the next 10 years once the bill is passed into law.

Senate Bill No. 1877 seeks to extend the implementation of subsidized electricity rate to marginalized end-users, especially those households consuming not more than 100 kilowatt hour (kWh) or less per month.

Gatchalian said the passage of the measure into law would provide relief to power consumers who continue to deal with the high cost of electricity, especially during the pandemic.

“Through this measure, low-income households are assured this financial assistance benefit they enjoy for almost two decades will continue,” Gatchalian said.

The senator said he is also optimistic that the bill will see its enactment before the expiration of the Lifeline Rate provision under Section 73 of Republic Act No. 10150, the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) of 2001 on June this year.

If passed into law, some 5.5 million households stand to benefit from the socialized pricing mechanism until June 2031.

Under the bill, qualified marginalized end-users are either those who are household-beneficiaries under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) or who have applied and have been certified by their respective distribution utilities based on criteria set by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), taking into account the poverty threshold set by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).