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Governor still undecided on fuel surcharge fee
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Posted on Jan 31 2005
The governor remains undecided whether to approve or not an emergency regulation imposing a 1.5-cent fuel surcharge fee on CNMI consumers using electricity provided by the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.
But Gov. Juan N. Babauta said yesterday that his decision will be known in a few days. So far, he said, he still has “a lot of questions that need to be answered.”
He declined to enumerate these concerns but said it is “basically about the rate.”
“It’s how the CUC derived the different rates and whether the increase in surcharge reflects the actual cost for providing fuel,” said the governor.
Babauta referred to a previous decision by the CUC board of directors to impose a 3.5-cent surcharge fee across the board—government, business, and residential customers. Following widespread objection, the CUC then moved to charge 3.5 cents on government users and 1.5 cent on business and residential users.
The Attorney General’s Office, however, opposed the decision, saying it was unlawful and discriminatory.
The CUC withdrew the policy and stayed silent on the issue until last week when it decided to adopt a resolution calling for an across-the-board 1.5-cent fuel surcharge fee.
The latest CUC ruling requires the governor’s signature to become effective immediately.
CUC said the emergency regulation should be adopted because CUC’s fuel expense has risen by 128 percent over the past five years.
It said that the cost of producing electricity currently exceeds the revenue generated from the sale of electricity to customers. It said it has exhausted all of its cash reserves to meet fuel expenses.
The utility firm said it will be unable to pay for fuel beginning February 2005.
If approved by the governor, the FSF emergency regulation shall take effect for 120 days immediately upon filing with the Commonwealth registrar.
After this period, the CUC has the option to adopt the regulations on a permanent basis by allowing a 30-day public comment period.
