Energy chief says Palace not likely to give electricity subsidy

SINGAPORE – Cash assistance, and not electricity subsidy, is the Aquino administration’s immediate response to the challenge of uplifting the lives of the poor, according to Energy Secretary Jose Almendras.

“If you think about it, we’re being celebrated all over the world for being market driven. What we’re looking at is not really subsidy, but financial assistance to the marginalized sector. That’s why we have our conditional cash transfer program. We are accelerating the commission of cash transfer,” Almendras told Asian Power Magazine of the Singapore-based Charlton Media.

Power cost in the Philippines is among the most expensive in the world.

Almendras cited the conditional cash transfer program of the government under the Pantawid Pamilya Pilipino Program (4Ps).

Under the Electric Power Reform Industry Act or EPIRA, the government provides 40 centavos per kilowatt-hour (kwh) subsidy to consumers through mandatory rate reduction. This is on top of the lifeline discounts given to marginalized customers or those consuming less than 100 kwh. 

Almendras, along with Energy Minister of Malaysia Dato Sri Idis Jala and Second Minister for Trade and Industry of Singapore Iswaran, discussed electricity subsidy during the Singapore Energy Summit here last Monday.

Almendras said the government has allocated P39.5 billion for the 4Ps in 2012, an P18.3-billion increase from its 2011 budget of P21.2 billion.

“Before the end of the term of the President, it’ll probably go to P50 billion,” he said.

“This is because it’s not just supporting them for energy, but really helping them. It’s a catch-on mechanism to take them out of poverty,” Almendras said.

In Malaysia, electricity subsidy is based on consumption in households, according to the Asian Power Magazine article.

In Singapore, the government credits a monthly electricity charge subsidy, the report said.

President Aquino signed early this year a law extending the lifeline rate for power consumers up to 2021.

The discounts given to these consumers are shouldered by those with higher electricity consumption.