News reports said electric bills in all areas served by the National Transmission Corp. (TransCo) will be higher starting this month after the Energy Regulatory Commission authorized it to charge an additional P0.0733 per kilowatt hour (kWh) from all on-grid consumers connected to any distribution utility (DU), which covers all parts of the country, including Metro Manila.
In a hardly-noticed advisory via internet, the Pampanga Electric Cooperative II, a DU covering most of the highly populated cities and towns of Pampanga, said the increased rates are to take effect this month. The higher rates are expected to reflect on bills starting next month.
This means additional burden on the consumers who are already financially overstretched finding it difficult to cope with the steep increases in the cost of living.
Fuel prices have just gone up again today and with it, the ever-increasing prices of basic commodities. The opening of classes also adding to the woes of the battered consumers.
And now TransCo, the fund administrator of the so-called Feed-In Tariff Allowance or FIT-All and through its concessionaire, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, is set to charge P0.2536 kWh starting this month from its former rate of P0.1830 kWh.
An inopportune moment to say the least especially when the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law causes a steady rise in the prices of basic commodities.
To say that Kapampangan households are not feeling the pinch of higher prices is not only an anomaly, it is absurd.
What timing. Bad timing.
