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Power ‘rate credit’ proposal hangs fire
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Posted on Jun 16 2008
Customers counting on the promised power “rate credit” will have to wait some more, as the Legislature and the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. remain deadlocked on how to grant the relief.
The law, which allowed for the rate increase last month, provided some $9 million for CUC’s fuel expenses. CUC did not factor the subsidy into its computation of the power rates.
To correct this mistake, the Legislature and CUC agreed to grant the subsidy in the form of discounts, starting with the May 2008 billings. The initial proposal was to waive 30 to 50 percent of the billing for low-end customers, specifically those who use 1,000 kWh or less a month. CUC was to either add a line item for “fuel credit” in the billing, or deduct the discount from the amount due when the customer comes in to pay at CUC.
Customers in the 1,000-kWh block range are billed a total $1.5 million a month, under the new power rates.
Rep. Victor Hocog, chairman of the House Committee on Public Utilities, Transportation and Communications, said CUC had yet to provide the formula for computing how much subsidy each customer should receive.
Hocog’s latest proposal is expected to further complicate the issue. Instead of discounts, he now wants CUC to charge all of the customers nothing for fuel costs for the month of May.
“CUC did not pay anything for their fuel delivery last month. That money came from the general fund. So they [CUC] should not charge the people, including the business community, anything for fuel,” he said.
But CUC executive director Antonio Muna has said that customers would only get the relief once the Department of Finance transferred money to CUC for that specific purpose. To date, all of the government funds paid to CUC are booked as payments for the central government’s utility consumption.
