Meralco nears halfway mark in P30-B refund program

The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), the country’s biggest power utility, is now almost halfway through with its P30-billion customer refund program as it has paid P12 billion since November 2001.

Meralco president Jesus Francisco said the refund process has been “proceeding as scheduled”.

He said as of end 2006, the company had already processed P20 billion worth of refund applications out of the total P30-billion refundable amount.

In 2001, the Supreme Court ordered Meralco to pay back some P30-billion overcharges collected from its customers since 1994.

Francisco said the refund process has four phases. The company has completed the first three phases and is now in the process of settling refunds for Phase IV, the last and most expensive stage involving large accounts.

“We have been sending letters to large customers who are under Phase IV of the refund process,” Francisco said.

Last January, Meralco said it has completed the payment of some P3.6 billion out of the P18 billion Phase IV refund stage.

Meralco’s refund management task force head Leonardo Mabale said about 50 percent of the phase IV customers preferred payment through credit to bills while another 50 percent opted for post-dated checks.

Mabale admitted that the refund process for the last phase was a little slow but “we expect the applications to pick up in the second half of the year.”

 “We are encountering delays in preparing the documents. We want to make sure that all documents are correct. We also need to ensure that the refund would go to the right customers,” he said.

The last stage of the refund process for Meralco’s big commercial and industrial customers will be conducted in two phases.