Napocor seeks P166-B budget for next year

The National Power Corp. (Napocor) is proposing a budget of P166.026 billion for 2001, 2.2 percent higher than the power firm’s budget of P162.397 billion for the current year, according to a congressional report.

The amount represents 90.6 percent of the proposed budget for all energy-related government-owned or controlled corporations (GOCCs). The other corporations are the Philippine National Oil Corp. (NOPC) and the National Electrification Administration (NEA).

The congressional report stated that Napocor has the biggest slice of the energy budget due to its huge requirements for fuel and power generated by independent power producers (IPPs). It also needs at least P95.5 billion to finance its various projects, the report stated.

Of the total amount, approximately P40 billion will be allocated purely for debt and interest repayments representing nearly a quarter of its entire budget. Interest payments will go up by P1.7 billion or 11.4 percent from the 2000 level due to the peso depreciation.

The same congressional report indicated that the personnel of Napocor will receive an average P640,000 per employee making them the best-paid public servants. Napocor has a special compensation package under Republic Act (RA) 7648 or the Electric Power Crisis Act of 1993.

Its staffing level for year 2001 has been placed at 9,917 positions, 1,866 positions less than the 11,783 including casuals and contractuals in 2000. Included in the personnel budget is the P896 million to cover commutation of terminal leaves of 3,000 personnel who will be separated from the service under its special disengagement plan and monetization of terminal leaves of its officials and employees.

The debt-ridden Napocor will have a capital outlay of P24.2 billion mainly for the completion of is remaining power generation projects, installation of transmission lines, and cosntruction of substations.

The corporation proposes to concentrate on the implementation of projects to support capacities to be provided by IPPs through the construction of transmission lines and substations facilities.

Napocor plans to complete generation projects for an additional capacity of 175 megawatts (MW), complete transmission lines of 818.35 circuit kilometers, and substation projects with a capacity of 6,042.50 MVA.

"Due to its financial difficulties, only projects which are supportive of the development of Mindanao and critical to the system are recommended for implementation," the report noted.

Priority projects include an investment of P2.6 billion on transmission lines in Mindanao which will start in 2001 such as the Leyte-Mindanao interconnection project, several transmission line projects in Borobo-Cagwait, Tacurong-Isulan-Lebak, Aurora-Pulangco, and General Santos-Tacurong-Nuling.

However, all these projects will require foreign financing as the government can only offer sufficient funds equivalent to counterpart funding.