Group blocks proposal to pass on RPT payment to consumers

MANILA, Philippines — Murang Kuryente Partylist (MKP) is blocking the proposal of the Philippine Rural Electric Cooperatives Association Inc. (Philreca) to pass on the payment of real property tax (RPT) to consumers.

The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) suspended the hearing on Philreca’s petition due to the intervention of the Murang Kuryente Partylist legal team.

“In the hearing, we stopped the attempt of Philreca to muddle the issue. We called their petition for rule-making what it really is – an application for power rate hike. Now they have to take the more difficult route to achieve their goal of making consumers pay for their taxes,” said Gerry Arances, Murang Kuryente Partylist nominee.

Philreca earlier filed a petition with the ERC to initiate and promulgate rules on its proposal to pass-on the RPT to member consumers of electric cooperatives (ECs).

This is in light of the Supreme Court decision in the case of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) versus The City Assessor and the City Treasurer of Lucena City where it affirmed that transformers, electric posts, transmission lines, insulators and electric meters are not exempted from RPT under the local government units (LGUs).

But in asking for rules to pass on RPT, Philreca said its petition does not push an increase in electricity rates.

“The clerk manifested that Philreca complied with the jurisdictional requirements. However, we intervened and asked to see the records ourselves. Upon checking, we saw that there are many missing pre-filing and filing requirements including notice to the legislative bodies of LGUs,” the MKP legal team said.

The Power for People Coalition – a network of power consumers, civil society organizations, and advocacy groups engaged in issues of energy and electricity – had slammed the proposal of Philreca to add the tax on real property to the monthly bill of consumers nationwide.

Arances, who is also the Power for People convenor and the executive director of the Center for Energy, Ecology, and Development (CEED), said LGUs should not allow ECs to pass on RPT to customers as this would be indirectly taxing the citizens for the property of ECs.