The National Electrification Administration (NEA) proposed a total of P4.9 billion budget for 2018, majority of which shall be used to fund loans for the electric cooperatives (ECs), capital expenditure (capex) requirements, and other electrification projects.
This is based on the approved National Expenditure Program (NEP) of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) that was presented before the members of the House Committee on Appropriations.
Administrator Edgardo Masongsong said the DBM-recommended corporate operating budget will allow them to work on the following targets next year: energization of 1,817 sitios; construction of power distribution lines for resettlement areas in Zamboanga City; establishment of a quick response fund during occurrence of calamities; connection of additional 460,000 consumers; reduction of system loss to 10.70 percent; collection efficiency of 99 percent; release of P1.7-billion loans to the ECs; and realization of a net margin from the agency’s financial operation
“The sitio electrification level would increase to 86 percent by the end of 2018 from 83 percent in 2016,” Masongsong said, adding this could even go up to 89 percent should the 17th Congress consider expanding their budget to P5.22 billion.
Of the P4.9 billion corporate budget, P1.96-billion will be subsidized by the national government while the remaining P2.94-billion will be sourced from the internally generated funds of the agency.
The state subsidy will be used to finance the remaining sitio electrification projects and the construction of distribution lines in resettlement sites for the victims of natural and man-made calamities including those displaced by the 2013 Zamboanga siege.
Also incorporated in the P1.96 billion are the administrative and operating expenses of the agency, which is pegged at P209 million. This includes the provision for the payment of corporate income tax and remittance of dividends to the national government.
For personnel services, the NEA allocated P440 million to cover the basic salaries of its 350 employees and five members of the Board of Administrators, taking into account their allowances, statutory contributions, and compensation adjustments.
The state-owned corporation tasked to implement rural electrification breezed through the initial budget deliberation process chaired by Davao City Representative Karlo Alexei Nograles and is now preparing to hurdle the same before the Senate.