Senator Imee Marcos on Saturday, May 21 hailed Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) chairman Agnes Devanadera for advising the next administration to remove value-added tax (VAT) on power generation and maintain it only on power distribution.
‘’Her clear solution for lowering electricity costs is long overdue and echoes one of my proposals in Senate Bill (SB) 219, filed during my first month as senator in July 2019, which seeks to exempt not only the sale of electricity from VAT but also the sale or importation of machines and equipment to be directly used in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity,’’ she said.
Marcos, chairwoman of the Senate Economic Affairs Committee, explained that removing the VAT on electricity charges would benefit not only household and commercial end-users.
"It will also make the Philippines more attractive to foreign investors who balk at the country’s high power rates, arguably the highest in Asia,’’ she explained.
‘’We need to mitigate the inevitable increase in the cost of power generation dependent on oil and gas, as global prices and supply of these commodities will continue to be volatile due to the Russia-Ukraine war,’’ she pointed out.
The transition teams of both the present government and presumptive president Ferdinand Marcos Jr. should seriously consider Devanadera as the next Department of Energy (DOE) chief, she added.