Napocor sees P1 B income this yr

MANILA, Philippines - The National Power Corp. (Napocor) is aiming to post a net income of roughly P1 billion this year as it continues to step up its fiscal management efforts, its top official told The STAR yesterday.

“We expect a net income in the magnitude of a billion pesos (this year),” Napocor president Froilan Tampinco said, but added this would depend on the success of their revenue generating activities and prudent fiscal management.

In the first half of the year, Tampinco said the company’s net income stayed in “positive territory” but declined to provide specific figures.

“The indications for the first semester show that the net income is also positive. This is also attributable to our fiscal management,” Tampinco said, adding that Napocor has “flexibility provisions” in its budget that allowed the company to manage its resources better.

Tampinco said if the state-owned power company is unable to generate a net income of P1 billion, its fiscal position, nonetheless, would remain positive this year, sustaining last year’s gains, the first time since 2008 that Napocor posted a net income.

Last year, Napocor posted a net income of P398 million, after several years of net losses.

‘For the first time in a long time, Napocor showed a net income in 2012. We attribute this to the recovery of our power generation costs and share in the universal charge for missionary electrification or UCME fund from 2002 to 2006,” Tampinco said.

In 2011, the company posted a net loss of P18.87 million, significantly narrower than the P2.78-billion net loss incurred in 2010.  In 2009, Napocor posted a net loss of P2.87 billion.

In 2008, when Tampinco took over the helm of Napocor, the company reported a a net loss of P7.2 billion.

“In 2011, our milestone year, we were successful in reining in our net loss to only P18.87 million or less than one percent of reported loss in 2010. This is a remarkable achievement considering that we had to work with a very lean budget of P7.58 billion, roughly less than half of the amount endorsed by the Department of Budget and Management,” Tampinco said.

He said the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) also approved a UCME charge that is less than half of its provisional approval, resulting in foregone revenues of P3 billion.

“Considering the backdrop of our situation in 2011, a net loss of nearly of P19 million is no mean feat,” Tampinco said.