Senior citizens will get a 5-percent discount on electric and water bills starting this month, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) and Maynilad Water Services Inc. said is separate reports Wednesday. To qualify for the discount the senior citizen’s water supply and connection status with Maynilad must fall within these parameters:
- Residential or semi-business
- Under the name of the senior citizen
- Monthly basic consumption of 30 cubic meters
To get the discount for electric bills senior citizens or their representatives must submit an application form, a photocopy of the Senior Citizen ID issued by the Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs, as well as a copy of Maynilad satement of account and a special power of attorney in favor of an authorized representative as the case may be. The commission said it has issued a resolution adopting the new rules on the special discounts for seniors with no more than 100-kilowatt-hour (kWh) in monthly consumption. The new rules will take effect after the 15-days publication requisite, ERC executive director Francis Saturnino Juan said. "We are targeting to publish the new rules within this week or early next week," he added. ERC in August 2010 started public consultations on the proposed "Rules for the Calculation of Senior Citizen Discounts and Subsidies on Electricity Consumption under Sec. 4 and 5 of Republic Act 9994." Juan said the rules would provide "transparency in the grant of senior citizen discounts and calculation of the subsidy rates," while protecting the interest of those affected by the rates and services of the distribution utilities, he added. RA 9994 grants a 5-percent discount on power consumption to those whose installed electric meters are registered under the name of the senior citizen with monthly electricity consumption of not more than 100 kWh.
— JE/VS, GMANews.TV 
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