Gov't ‘Lifeline Rate’ program to help poor pay for electricity bills

The government on Sunday announced the roll out a "Lifeline Rate" program that would help qualified low-income households pay their electricity bills.

According to a Presidential Communications Office statement, the Lifeline Rate was a subsidized rate given to qualified low-income electricity customers who are unable to pay their electricity bills at full cost.

Among the households who can apply for the Lifeline Rate program are the beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) or customers considered to be living below the poverty threshold set by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

Only one Distribution Utility (DU)/Electric Cooperative (EC) service per qualified household can be granted a lifeline rate.

In cases more than one beneficiary from the same household applies for the lifeline rate using the same service account, only one application would be granted the lifeline rate, with the other applications disapproved.

Qualified beneficiaries may apply by submitting to the DU and EC their duly accomplished Lifeline Rate Application Form, their most recent electricity bill, and any valid government-issued identification card containing the signature and address of the customer.

If the customer lives below the PSA's poverty threshold, he or she must submit a local Social Welfare and Development Office (SWDO) certification.

The certification should have been issued within the last six months, and it must show that the applicant's family income was below the poverty threshold applicable at the time of his or her application.

The power reduction rate varies depending on the prevailing rates of the DUs or ECs.

In the Meralco franchise area, lifeline end-users with zero to 20 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of monthly consumption will be granted a 100-percent discount on the generation charges, including system loss, transmission, and distribution components of their bill, except for the fixed metering charge of P5, which means they would have to pay, more or less, only P20 for their electric bill.

If they do not avail themselves of the Lifeline Rate through Meralco, they will have to shell out more or less P250.

Customers with 21-50 kWh usage who apply for a Lifeline Rate will more or less only pay P300 in their electric bills. Otherwise, they will have to pay the undiscounted amount of around P550, if they do not apply for the Lifeline Rate.

Those with a 51-70 kWh consumption bracket who apply for a Lifeline Rate will only be paying around P522.90 but will pay the undiscounted rate of P763.37 if they do not apply for the Lifeline Rate.

Those with 71-100 kWh usage who apply for the Lifeline Rate will only pay P904.21 but will pay the undiscounted rate of P1,099.10 if they do not apply for the Lifeline Rate.

The program roll-out was moved to September 2023 to give qualified customers more time to register.

Based on the data provided by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), as of the end of July 2023, only 12,829 household beneficiaries of 4Ps out of the 4.2 million household members have applied for the Lifeline Rate program.

The Lifeline Rate program validity is based on the annual certified list of 4Ps beneficiaries provided by the DSWD. A qualified customer is eligible to receive the Lifeline Rate if he/she remains on the updated list.

If delisted, the customer may opt to apply for a local SWDO certification if he/she is living below the poverty line and may reapply for the Lifeline Rate.

For non-4Ps beneficiaries, the Lifeline Rate will have a three-year validity from the date of issuance of certification by the local SWDO. — DVM, GMA Integrated News