Manila Water rates up, Maynilad lower next month

MANILA, Philippines — Customers of Manila Water Co. Inc. will see an upward adjustment in their bills next month, while consumers of Maynilad Water Services Inc. will see a rollback, the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System-Regulatory Office (MWSS-RO) said.

At a virtual briefing yesterday, MWSS chief regulator Patrick Ty said the MWSS board approved a recommendation to implement the second quarter 2021 foreign currency differential adjustments (FCDA) effective April 1.

Ty said Manila Water would implement an FCDA of 0.84 percent of its 2021 average basic charge of P28.52 per cubic meter or P0.24 per cu. m.

This is an upward adjustment of P0.05 per cu.m from the previous FCDA of P0.19 per cu.m in the first quarter.

With the approved FCDA, Manila Water customers consuming 10 cu.m or less per month will have an increase of P0.27 per month while those consuming an average of 20 cu.m would have an upward adjustment of P0.60 per month.

In addition, customers using 30 cu.m can expect an increase of P1.22 per month.

Meanwhile, Maynilad will apply an FCDA of -0.41 percent of its 2021 average basic charge of P36.24 per cu.m or a - P0.16 per cu.m.

This is a downward adjustment of P0.01 per cu.m from the previous FCDA of P0.14 per cu.m.

Customers of Maynilad consuming 10 cu.m or less per month will have a rollback of P0.08 per month, while those consuming 20 cu.m will see a P0.10 decrease per month.

In addition, Maynilad customers consuming 30 cu.m per month can expect a P0.20 reduction per month.

Adjusted rates for both Manila Water and Maynilad will take effect on April 1.

Ty attributed the mixed movement in rate adjustments to the fluctuations in foreign currencies.

“The reason why there’s an increase in Manila Water and a rollback in Maynilad is because there are significant portions of the loans of Manila Water that are in Japanese yen and euros. Since the Japanese yen and euro appreciated against the Philippine peso, this caused an increase in their FCDA,” Ty said.

In contrast, Ty said a majority of loans payable for Maynilad this year are in US dollars, noting the appreciation of the Philippine peso, which resulted in the FCDA rollback.