Wednesday, August 27, 2008 Meralco to refund meter deposits in November
DISTRIBUTION utility Manila Electric Company (Meralco) will implement the meter deposit refund in November.
Robert Almazora, customer retail services chief of Meralco, said the first group to receive the refund amounting to an average of P800 per account would be the residential customers in particular the lifeline users consuming 100 kilowatt hour (kWh) and below.
“We’re working hard to start the implementation of the meter deposit refund and we will start as early as November instead of the January deadline. We will start with the residential, the lowest consumption bracket,” Almazora said.
According to him, the refund would reach P2.8 billion including the interest.
He said they are looking at a five-year period for the refund with at least majority or more than three years will be used for the residential which now accounts for about 1.8 million of their total customers.
Of the P2.8 billion, about 61 percent will be paid for the residential, 30.5 percent will go to the commercial and industrial, 6.5 percent for the small commercial, and two percent will be for the streetlights.
Almazora said eligible customers are those who paid for the meter deposits for the period of 1987-2004 when the government issued the Magna Carta for Residential Electricity Consumers.
The Magna Carta for Residential Electricity Consumers and the Distribution Services (Magna Carta) and Distribution System Open Access Rules (Dsoar) promulgated by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) on June 17, 2004 and January 18, 2006, respectively, provided the basis in exempting electricity consumers from paying meter deposits.
In its resolution issued last June, the ERC ordered Meralco to refund the meter deposits paid by their customers.
Under the rules, “the refund of meter deposits will start not later than six months from its effectivity in the case of private distribution utilities (DUs), including Meralco, customers and within 24 months in the case of non-stock and non-profit electric cooperatives (ECs).”
Residential customers as well as non-residential customers who paid their meter deposits prior to the effectivity of ERB Resolution 95-21 (Standard Rules Governing Electrical Power Services promulgated on September 22, 1995) will be entitled to six percent per annum interest while meter deposits that were paid from the effectivity of Resolution 95-21 until the day prior to the effectivity of the Magna Carta (for residential customers) or Dsoar (for non-residential customers) will earn an interest of 10 percent per annum.
On the other hand, meter deposits paid from the effectivity of the Magna Carta or Dsoar until the day prior the start of the refund will be entitled to an interest of six percent per annum.
The payment of six percent or 10 percent interest will depend on when the meter deposit was paid.
ERC Executive Director Francis Saturnino Juan said in case of some unclaimed meter deposits, “upon the prescription period of the period of refund, all unclaimed meter deposits including all appropriate accrued interest shall be deposited in an escrow account in a bank.”
“Unclaimed meter deposits will not go to the DU. We will ask from the Office of the Solicitor General to start the exit proceeding in order to forfeit the unclaimed deposits to the state. The DUs will be the one to determine which bank. And afterwards, they will report to the ERC to audit the implementation of the refund to find check if there were either refunds that were not given or not claimed. In this way, we will find out which bank the DUs will choose for its escrow account and if ready we can have the exit process started,” Juan said.
He added that the ERC will also conduct the audit to determine if there are unclaimed meter deposits.
Customers were given 10 years from the time the unclaimed deposits were put in escrow to claim their refund and failure to do so, the unclaimed deposits will go to the government.
Meanwhile, Meralco lawyer Monico Jacob said with the meter deposit refund to start soon, they will file a motion with the Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) to dismiss the “syndicated estafa” case filed by consumer group National Association of Electricity Consumer for Reforms (Nasecore).
“Our lawyers are filing a motion for the judicial termination of the probable cause,” Jacob said.
According to him, it is clear that the case filed by Nasecore has no merit especially now that the meter deposit refund will be implemented in the next two months.
Meralco vice president for corporate communications Elpi Cuna, on the other hand, said the decision of the Department of Justice (DOJ) on the syndicated estafa case filed by Nasecore is nothing but “harassment” and a “concentrated attack against the power firm.”
Pete Ilagan, president of Nasecore, has charged Meralco officials with syndicated estafa for its alleged failure to indicate in its financial reports that the P889 million meter deposits collected from its customers and instead listed it as its income.
Among those charged were Meralco chairman Manuel Lopez and the 2006 board of directors Arthur Defensor Jr., Gregory Domingo, Octavio Victor Espiritu, Christian Monsod, Federico Puno, Washington Sycip, Emilio Vicens, Francisco Viray and Cesar Virata.
Also charged with syndicated estafa are Daniel Tagaza, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Meralco; Rafael Andrada, first vice president and treasurer; Helen de Guzman, vice president and corporate auditor and compliance officer; Antonio Valera, vice president and assistant comptroller; and Manolo Fernando, senior assistant vice president and assistant treasurer. (MSN/Sunnex)
