THE Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) once again caught the ire of lawmakers who complained of “confusing and hard to understand” electricity bills.
At a virtual hearing on Monday, Senate Energy Committee Chairman Sherwin Gatchalian said his office received numerous complaints from people who could not understand how their bills were computed, given earlier assurances by regulators and the distribution utility that special consideration will be given for the months when Covid-19 quarantines were in place, beginning mid-March until end of June.
Gatchalian pointed to his own experience as an example: his bill shot up for the months of March and April, for a total of P20,539.68, when he was not even staying in his condominium on those months. Compared to his May bill, Gatchalian said this only amounted to P3,368.05. This led the senator to believe that Meralco overcharged him.
Meralco refuted this, saying Gatchalian’s May bill already reflected his actual consumption. “Your consumption in the month of May is actually lower so it means that what happened during that period was that anything that was overly estimated in March and April was already adjusted in your May consumption,” Meralco First Vice President and Head of Customer Retail Services and Corporate Communications Victor Genuino explained to the senator.
Gatchalian then chided Meralco for not explaining this in the bill that he received. “It’s nowhere in the bill. You expect me to blindly trust Meralco? If the Energy committee chairman cannot understand your bill, what more the ordinary citizens? It’s proven that your bill is confusing. If Meralco had just followed ERC [Energy Regulatory Commission],” then there wouldn’t have been chaos, he added, in a mix of English and Filipino. Why, Gatchalian wanted to know, “did Meralco not follow the breakdown as directed by ERC?”
Other members of the committee raised their respective complaints at the hearing that lasted for over four hours.
Other DUs in violation, too
For the regulator’s part, ERC chief Agnes Devanadera said there are many distribution utilities (DUs) that violated the agency’s billing advisories during the lockdown.
As such, her office will issue show-cause orders to all violators, including Meralco.
In all, the ERC has received 47,000 complaints related to “bill shock” and noncompliance with ERC advisories from May up to present. Majority of the 47,000 complaints came from Meralco customers.
“Now, there are already 47,000 complaints filed with the ERC. Most of the complaints are focused on this. Despite the advisories we issued, marami pa din ang nag violate. The violation is clearly on advisories because we specifically directed them how billing should be done. The bills given to the people should not have been stated that way,” said the ERC chief, partly in Filipino.
Meralco apologizes
The utility firm, meanwhile, apologized to the Energy committee.
“We have shortcomings. The May bill is the real problematic billing that has created confusion because of estimates,” Meralco President Ray Espinosa acknowledged. The confusion stemmed from Meralco’s move to send “estimates” in the April-May bills based on average past three billing periods of customers. When meter readers were finally able to get out and measure actual consumption, this was reflected in the June billings. However, people got confused, according to Sen. Risa Hontiveros, because the June billing that contained the official measurements gave a “June 30” payment deadline, contradicting assurances they could pay in installment for what they used in the lockdown season.
Pressed for action by Gatchalian, Espinosa said the confusion would be cleared via the issuance of a letter to all Meralco customers that will contain the breakdown of the estimated bills for March and April as against the actual bill for the said months.
“That is something we want to correct by this letter. May pagkukulang kami. Iyung previous estimates ng March and April, iyun ang nakadagdag sa kaguluhan. Ang balak ko gawin ay linawin iyun sa sulat [We have our shortcomings. The previous estimates for March and April, those added to the confusion. We plan to clear up everything in a letter],” said Espinosa.
He said his team would work on a clarificatory letter to all customers soon, particularly those whose meters were read in May but whose bills contain a previous reading that is actually based on estimated March and/or April consumption.
‘No overcharge’
Meantime, Meralco assured the senators that customers are only charged for electricity they actually consumed. “Our assurance is that they will not be overcharged. Let me assure the chair and the committee members, and the public that there is no intention on the part of Meralco to charge a customer and have that customer pay more than the actual consumption registered in the meter,” said Espinosa.
Sen. Risa Hontiveros appreciated Meralco’s decision to allow customers to settle the bills during the quarantine period in equal installments of up to six months as advised by the ERC, but underscored the confusion caused by letters sent to customers in June.
Espinosa said Meralco even went beyond the coverage of ERC’s advisory, which only starts from March 16 and ends on May 31. He said Meralco even included customer bills due from March 1. He also said that Meralco has implemented a moratorium on service disconnection until September 30 this year.
Meanwhile, Espinosa also announced that the company will now shoulder the P47-Meralco Online convenience fee for online payments, for the entire ECQ and GCQ period, and will correspondingly refund the amount paid by customers when they previously settled their electricity bills.
Image credits: (Bloomberg)
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