NEA seeks P4.9 B for electric cooperatives

MANILA, Philippines - State-run National Electrification Administration is seeking a budget of P4.9 billion in 2018 to cover the electric cooperatives’ needs for electrification.

The agency said majority of the proposed budget would be used to fund EC’s long and short-term loans, capital expenditure (capex) requirements and other electrification projects.

Administrator Edgardo Masongsong said the budget would allow them to work on the energization of 1,817 sitios; construct power distribution lines for resettlement areas in Zamboanga City; establish a quick response fund during calamities; connect  an additional 460,000 consumers; reduce system loss to 10.7 percent; improve collection efficiency to 99 percent; release P1.7-billion loans to the ECs; and realize a net margin from the agency’s financial operation.

Of the P4.9-billion corporate budget, P1.96 billion will be subsidized by the national government while the remaining P2.94 billion will be sourced from the internally generated funds of the agency.

The state subsidy will be used to finance the remaining sitio electrification projects and the construction of distribution lines in resettlement sites for the victims of natural and man-made calamities including those displaced by the 2013 Zamboanga siege.

“Accordingly, the sitio electrification level would increase to 86 percent by the end of 2018 from 83 percent in 2016,” Masongsong said.

The sitio electrification level could even go up to 89 percent should the 17th Congress consider expanding NEA’s budget to P5.22 billion, he said.

Also incorporated in the subsidized amount are the administrative and operating expenses of the agency, which is pegged at P209 million. This includes the provision for the payment of corporate income tax and remittance of dividends to the national government.

Earlier, the agency said it is asking Congress to nearly triple its budget for the sitio electrification program (SEP) annually starting 2019 as it targets to energize 100 percent of rural households nationwide by 2022.

Masongsong said 23,464 sitios in the country have yet to be energized through the SEP, and the cost to electrify one sitio is more or less P1 million.