MANILA – President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr said on Thursday he wants to study a proposal to scrap the value added tax on power generation and move it instead to power distribution to bring down power costs.
“That’s one of the things we’re looking at. Meron talagang pwedeng ano eh—it’s even on the spot market, the transmission charge, there are areas na pwede pa nating ibaba eh.”
“So again, I’ve been talking to some of the producers, sa ating energy production side natin, willing naman sila, naintindihan naman nila that this is an emergency situation,” he said.
He said he is also looking at amending the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA).
“We have to be very strict in enforcing EPIRA but beyond that we also have to look at possible amendments to EPIRA. Dahil medyo naka-outdated na yung ibang provisions ho sa EPIRA, kasi nagbago na yung sistema,” he told a press briefing.
“Just the division between production, transmission and distribution, that was--EPIRA was supposed to take care of that pero iba yung nangyari,” he added.
The only son and namesake of the former dictator did not specify which EPIRA provisions he wanted amended.
Signed in 2001, the EPIRA hoped to give the Philippines reliable and competitively priced electricity.
In a 2018 paper, the Philippine Institute of Development Studies (PIDS) noted that EPIRA achieved its goal of improving the reliability, quality, and affordability of power supply in the Philippines, as well as increasing the number of electrified households and improving efficiency in both the generation and transmission sectors.
