The Marcos Administration will roll out next month the Lifeline Rate program, which aims to benefit qualified low-income households to help them pay their electricity bills, the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) said.

The Lifeline Rate is a subsidized rate given to qualified low-income electricity customers who cannot pay their electricity bills at full cost.

In a statement, Communications Secretary Cheloy Garafil said households qualified for the Lifeline Rate program are:

• Beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps)
• Customers below the poverty threshold the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) set

According to Garafil, the Lifeline Rate shall be applied to only one Distribution Utility (DU) or Electric Cooperative (EC) service per qualified household.

"In case there are more than one beneficiaries who apply for the lifeline rate from the same household, using the same service account, only one application will be granted with lifeline rate while the remaining application/s will be disapproved," she said.

Qualified beneficiaries may apply by submitting to the DU and EC their duly accomplished Lifeline Rate Application Form, their most recent electricity bill, and any valid government-issued identification card (ID) containing their signature and address.

If the customer lives below the poverty threshold the PSA has set, they must submit a certification from the local Social Welfare and Development Office (SWDO) issued within the last six months. The certificate must show that the family income is below the poverty threshold applicable at the time of the application.

The power reduction rate varies depending on the prevailing rates of the DUs or ECs.

In the Meralco franchise area, lifeline end-users with zero to 20 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of monthly consumption will be granted a 100-percent discount on the generation charges, including system loss, transmission, and distribution components of their bill, except for the fixed metering charge of P5, which means more or less only P20 from their electric bills will be paid.

If they do not avail themselves of the Lifeline Rate through Meralco, they will have to shell out more or less P250.

Meanwhile, Garafil said customers with 21-50 kWh usage who apply for Lifeline Rate will only pay more or less P300 in their electric bills. Otherwise, they will have to pay the undiscounted amount of around P550.

Those with a 51-70 kWh consumption bracket who apply for Lifeline Rate will only pay around P522.90 but will pay the undiscounted rate of P763.37 if they do not apply for the program.

Households with 71-100 kWh usage who apply for the program will only pay P904.21 but will pay the undiscounted rate of P1,099.10 should they opt out of the Lifetime Rate.

The program roll-out has been moved to September 2023 to give qualified customers more time to register.

Data from the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) showed that as of the end of July 2023, only 12,829 household beneficiaries of 4Ps, out of the 4.2 million household members, have applied for the Lifeline Rate program.

Lifeline Rate program validity is based on the annual certified list of 4Ps beneficiaries provided by DSWD. Qualified customers can receive the Lifeline Rate if they remain on the updated list.

Delisted customers may apply for a local SWDO certification if they live below the poverty line and may reapply for Lifeline Rate.

For non-4Ps beneficiaries, Lifeline Rate will have a three-year validity from the date of issuance of certification by the local SWDO.