LUCENA CITY — Electricity bills also have pass-through charges that have to be scrapped to benefit Filipino consumers, the environmental group Power for People Coalition (P4P) said on Sunday.
According to the Energy Regulatory Commission, pass-through charges in electricity bills refer to the amount collected from end-users other than the distribution charge, which is the fee for using the facilities that deliver electricity to consumers, whether households or commercial enterprises.
The P4P made their demand after President Marcos ordered local governments to suspend the collection of so-called pass-through fees on national roads to ensure the efficient movement of goods and produce across the country.
Fossil fuels
“These [pass-through charges in electricity bills] come from the nature of fossil fuels, which tend to fluctuate due to foreign exchange rates and prices in the world market,” Arances explained.
The group assailed the charges as it passed the burden of responsibility for choosing fossil fuels to consumers “and not to the companies that chose the expensive source of electricity.”
“In other businesses, the company bears the responsibility for paying for their choice of suppliers. They have to balance their profit with their costs because consumers might no longer patronize them if their goods become too expensive,” Arances said.
“But in the electricity market, where you have a captive market, companies are not just assured of having customers, they are also assured of profits even if consumers were never consulted if they wanted their electricity to come from these companies in the first place,” he said.
Arances said pass-through charges are nonexistent in renewable energy power plants.
“But the current system gives incentives for gencos (generation companies) to keep choosing fossil fuels that pollute the environment and produce more expensive electricity,” he noted.