THE Murang Kuryente Party-List (MKP) held a protest rally in front of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) Visayas in Lahug, Cebu City on Thursday, April 4, to oppose the petition of the Philippine Rural Electric Association (Philreca) to pass on to consumers any tax on their real properties imposed by local government units (LGUs).
Philreca, with its members such as Cebu Electric Cooperative (Cebeco) and other distribution utilities (DUs) in the country, filed a petition before the ERC that if LGUs collect real property taxes, they will pass it on to consumers.
Philreca DU members own power stations, power lines, power posts and other real properties.
The MKP opposed this move, saying the power consumers who are already suffering from high power rates will have to pay more.
ERC Visayas Director Joel Bontuyan told SunStar Cebu that his agency has no power over taxation because the mandate belongs to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).
However, if the ERC approves the Philreca petition, all DUs will have legal basis to include in their electric bills the pass-on amount of real property tax paid to LGUs.
Bontuyan said that because there is no such thing as an exclusive pass-on law, it will apply not only to Philreca DU members like Cebeco but also Visayan Electric Company (Veco), Mactan Electric Company (Meco) and other private DUs.
He said MKP may submit its position paper on the matter for collation with opinions from other stakeholders.
Bontuyan said they will also invite the Department of Public Works and Highways, which owns national roads and where most of the power posts are erected, and the BIR to determine whether LGUs are mandated to collect tax on real properties of DUs.
He said the public consultation on Philreca’s petition will take a long time because this covers the whole country and all stakeholders must be heard.
On the other hand, Bontuyan said there must also be a scheme to compute the pass-on tax, considering there are LGUs that are not willing to tax DUs, and there are LGUs which are determined to collect it.
He said only consumers in an LGU collecting real property taxes on DUs should share in paying the tax. (EOB)