STATE-RUN National Electrification Administration (NEA) said on Thursday that its nine-month collection slightly increased to P1.7 billion, from P1.627 billion in the same period last year.
The amount represents payment collected from electric cooperatives (ECs).
“Latest data show the NEA posted a 99-percent collection efficiency on the loan amortization payments of the ECs in the first nine months of the year,” it said.
In the third quarter of the year alone, the NEA collected P495 million.
“As always, through this program, aside from payment fidelity, we expect better service, improved efficiency and well-capacitated operations from electric cooperatives,” NEA Administrator Edgardo Masongsong said.
“This is not a cure-all remedy to the headaches besetting them. We, therefore, enjoin those who avail themselves of the agency’s assistance to be on the lookout for these parameters. Because they are utilities, it all boils down to service,” the NEA chief said.
Since the inception of the NEA’s lending program, total loan collections from the ECs reached P22.377 billion as of end-September 2018, an increase of 1.61 percent over the P22.022-billion corporate target.
The state-run agency has been offering financial assistance to the ECs, through various loan windows, to finance their capital expenditure projects and rehabilitation of power-distribution systems.
The NEA’s lending program includes regular, calamity and concessional loans, stand-by and short-term credit loans, single-digit system loss loan, renewable-energy loan and modular generator-sets loan.
The short-term credit facility is meant to finance the ECs’ monthly cash shortfall in settling their power accounts with the power-generation companies.