ERB may grant Meralco rate increase

The Energy Regulatory Board (ERB) said yesterday that it is willing to grant the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) an increase if the latter can establish the urgency for such an increase.

"If they establish urgency, why not? But we need to verify the application carefully," said ERB Chairman Melinda Ocampo.

In any case, any increase that will be granted to Meralco will be below the proposed 30 centavos per Kilowatthour, Ocampo said. Meralco is asking that it be allowed to raise its rates to help it attain an eight percent return-on-rate-base (RORB) as prescribed by its multilateral creditors, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank’s International Bank for Reconstructing and Development (IBRD).

The two institutions apparently are reluctant to give another waiver to Meralco after the firm failed to meet the RORB requirements for the past three years. If Meralco will not improve its RORB, ADB and WB would likely declare the company in technical default and since the loans are 100 percent guaranteed by the National Government, the government would be forced to assume payments.