Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 17) — Consumers will no longer have to shoulder the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines’ (NGCP) 3% franchise tax by the next electricity billing period, Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) chairperson Monalisa Dimalanta said Thursday.
Through a unanimous vote, the commission on Aug. 8 suspended its previous ERC Resolution No. 07, series of 2011, Dimalanta told a hearing of the Joint Congressional Energy Commission.
The 2011 resolution saw the inclusion of the NGCP’s franchise tax in the monthly transmission costs billed to consumers as Distribution Utilities, amounting to around one centavo per kilowatt-hour.
Through Republic Act 9511 passed in 2008, the NGCP was granted a franchise and mandated a tax equivalent of 3% of all gross receipts derived by the corporation.
The suspension comes after the ERC warned the NGCP in July of possible administrative penalties for delays of up to three years in the implementation of 37 pending transmission projects.
READ: ERC gives NGCP 15 days to explain project delays
