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MANILA, Philippines - The government stands to gain P25 billion each month from prepaid electricity - an amount that can plug the Philippines' P279 billion full-year budget deficit. The catch is, customers of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) would have to fork out that amount.
Prepaid electricity is a scheme that would allow Meralco customers to manage their consumption, in the same way prepaid plans allow telecom subscribers to rationalize their mobile phone use.
However, each of the five million Meralco customers would have to shell out a P3,000 registration fee and between P500 and P1,000 a month to subscribe to prepaid electricity, said Marthyn Cuan, the company's chief information officer. These represent costs for the prepaid meters, which have communications components that are regulated and thus levied fees by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).
"We'd like to waive it but we have to get clearance from Department of Finance and the Office of the President," Cuan said.
"NTC understands na hindi naman namin ito ibebenta ng per minute calls. It's for the use of the equipment. That's why we're very optimistic we can get it waived, we just need government awareness na hey, we have to get our acts together or the consumers will bear the brunt," he added.
Meralco plans to conduct a technical test for prepaid electricity in July in preparation for a much wider commercial pilot project. The utility is preparing its 'smart grid' technology as a platform for the prepaid service.
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