Sunday, December 4, 2011
THE score on the paperless Baguio-Benguet Electric Cooperative
(Beneco) deal is set to be ironed-out soon with Beneco tasked to draft a
formal agreement to end nearly two years of dispute as to how much one
owes the other.
Mayor Mauricio Domogan said the parties’ joint technical team finally
came up with common formula to compute power purchased by Beneco and
the City-led operations of the Asin Mini-hydroelectric Plants (AMP)
after a meeting last November 29.
The mayor expressed hope some adjustments could be made in the
billing computations to squeeze out a bit more doe from the 86-year-old
AMP.
“During the November 29 meeting, Beneco General Manager Gerardo
Versoza accepted reduction of systems loss from 18.5 percent to 8.5
percent,” Domogan said.
The reduction, the mayor said, translates into P8.5 million in
payables arising from the baseless over-deduction of 18.5 percent
systems loss discounted from the amount Beneco was supposed to pay the
city had the same been pegged to 8.5-percent.
The P8.5 million shall be paid within a period of 27 months -- the
same length of time Beneco used the 18.5-percent systems loss as a way
of discounting its payables to the city.
Domogan said, “I don’t understand why Beneco even deducts as much as
18-percent [which could translate to bigger income for the city] when it
is merely a buyer of the power we produce.”
Beneco and the City Government, nil written agreement, likewise
consented to an electric power exchange rate using National Power
Corporation standard power tariff at P4.80 per KWH sometime in 2007.
“But records show us otherwise,” Domogan said, adding: “I don’t see Beneco using NPC rates as basis of their computations.”
Meanwhile, Domogan revealed Beneco’s apparent grunting over a
provision in the bidding conditions for privatization of the hydros.
He said “Beneco wrote the council saying they were allegedly
discriminated upon with the condition that only cooperatives registered
under the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) can join the bid.”
“I explained however that, while they may be disqualified from
bidding not being CDA-registered, they may bid as a National Irrigation
Administration (NIA) – registered cooperative,” he added. (Isagani Liporada)
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