P’sinan city, power cooperative agree to settle tax, electric bill issues

SAN CARLOS CITY, Pangasinan, Philippines   â€“ The mayor of this city has expressed hope that an agreement reached Friday by the city government and the management of an electric cooperative would finally settle the issue on unpaid taxes and electric bills between the two parties.

Mayor Julier Resuello told The STAR yesterday that lawyers of the city government and Central Pangasinan Electric Cooperative (Cenpelco) were present during the meeting.

“It was unfair because Cenpelco claimed in its letter to Gov. Amado Espino Jr. that the city government owes it more than P174-million in unpaid electric bills. But it didn’t say that it owes us P212-million in real property taxes since the late 80s,” Resuello said.

Cenpelco officer-in-charge Rodrigo Corpuz had told Espino that the electric cooperative is facing a major problem in its operation, especially in its financial obligation to its power supplier, apparently due to the city’s unpaid electric bills.

In last Friday’s meeting, both the city government and Cenpelco agreed to compute and offset their dues to one another.