ERC PR
The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) is considering to seek the assistance of the Commission on Audit (COA) to verify whether the Manila Electric Company’s (MERALCO) reported refunds have been fully returned or credited to its customers’ accounts. The ERC in previous years ordered MERALCO to refund the Bill Deposit, Meter Deposit, and Income Tax that it collected from its customers.
“The ERC is short of auditors so we are mulling to seek the assistance of the COA to find out if the refunds that MERALCO is supposed to have undertaken have already been completed or not. We believe that there must be proper auditing by an independent party, and we are confident that the COA is the best entity that could render their evaluation on MERALCO’s refund as they are reliable and unbiased”, said ERC Chairperson and CEO Agnes VST Devanadera.
It can be recalled that the ERC had previously sought the assistance of the COA to establish whether the implementation of the approved unbundled distribution rates resulted in a fair return and the recovery of generation costs were indeed revenue-neutral to MERALCO. The COA then conducted a complete audit of the books, records, and accounts of MERALCO.
“We are preparing to discuss our upcoming engagement with the COA as soon as practicable. We will rely on COA’s expertise to verify and ensure that what were supposed to have been refunded or credited to the consumers’ electricity accounts have been duly returned to them”, Chair Devanadera added.
