ERC considers tapping state auditors to check Meralco refund

THE Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) is planning to engage the Commission on Audit (CoA) to inspect the Manila Electric Co.’s (Meralco) conduct of refunding some bill portions that were collected in the past years.

The regulator previously ordered the country’s biggest distribution utility to return the collected bill deposits, meter deposits, and income taxes to 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,” ERC Chairperson Agnes VST Devanadera said in a statement on Wednesday.

The CoA had audited the books, records, and accounts of the listed distribution utility when ERC sought its assistance in determining whether its approved unbundled distribution rate for the utility resulted in a “fair” return. It had also done a review of the company’s recovery of generation costs.

“We are preparing to discuss our upcoming engagement with the CoA as soon as practicable,” Ms. Devanadera said.

In October last year, the Supreme Court tasked the regulator to review its approval of Meralco’s unbundled distribution rates in 2003 for the determination of a “reasonable and fair valuation of the regulatory asset base” of the utility, ensuring that its customers pay in the “least cost manner.”

The utility said it would anticipate a future government audit of its records. “We will await any order or directive from the ERC on this matter and act accordingly,” Meralco Head of Utility Economics Lawrence S. Fernandez told ����ý.

The Meralco official said there remains around P2.3 billion that it has yet to return to customers out of the over P30 billion in income tax charges previously collected.

“From more than P30 billion to be refunded, the unclaimed amount is down to around P2.3 billion,” he said.

In February 2019, the ERC ordered Meralco to reflect the then-remaining amount of income tax refunds on customers’ bills, bringing distribution charges.

Meralco’s controlling stakeholder, Beacon Electric Asset Holdings, Inc., is partly owned by PLDT Inc. Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has a stake in ����ý through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — Adam J. Ang