NEA, APEC fight for electric cooperatives

The National Electric Administration and the party list Association of Philippine Electric Cooperatives are fighting for the country’s electric cooperatives, offering tax and loan incentives to those that will switch sides. The rates of electric cooperatives registered with the Cooperative Development Authority will go down by P0.25 to P0.40 per kilowatthour, the party list APEC said Monday. The Expanded Value Added Tax and local taxes would be waived for cooperatives that will sign up with the CDA, Luis Manuel Corral, APEC secretary general, told reporters in an interview. Under Section 4, Article 132, of Republic Act 9520 or The New Cooperative Code of the Philippines, electric cooperatives registered with the CDA are also entitled to "congressional allocations, grants, subsidies and other financial assistance for rural electrification, which can be coursed through the Department of Energy, the authority or local government units," the APEC said. Corral said that despite the incentives, only 11 of 119 electric cooperatives in the country are CDA members. The non-members fall under the jurisdiction of the National Electrification Administration, he said. The 11 cooperatives that have 1.2 million member consumers include the Negros Occidental Electric Cooperatives, Palawan Electric Cooperative, Pangasinan Electric Cooperatives 1 and 2, Nueva Vizcaya Electric Cooperative, Negro Oriental Electric Cooperative, Abra Electric Cooperative, Isabela Electric Cooperative, Sorsogon Electric Cooperative, and Quirino Electric Cooperative. There has been an “intimidation, misinformation" and “miseducation" of electric cooperatives, with the NEA warning utilities that once they sign up with the CDA, they will no longer be allowed to borrow funds from the government agency, Coral alleged. Judith Alferez, head of NEA public affairs office, however, said that the NEA has not kept electric cooperatives from signing up with CDA. "They can see and they know the benefits of staying with NEA," Alferez said. Electric cooperatives that will transfer to CDA will have to settle all obligations, without the chance of the loans condoned by the National Power Corp., said a NEA official who asked not to be named. Still, Corral said that once a cooperative becomes a members of the CDA it can borrow directly from local banks and be given flexible terms. “We're operating at a privatized climate but electric cooperatives are still under a feudal system. We at APEC don't call for the abolishment of the NEA. [Rather, it should] evolve into a technical and financial agency," Corral said. Electric cooperatives should be given to the members “so they can be more accountable, more transparent" in operating the utility, he added. —VS, GMANews.TV