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[av_heading heading=’Bacolod, power co-op agree to settle dues ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY MAE SINGUAY
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BACOLOD City – Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco) and the city government have agreed to settle their dues with each other.
Mayor Evelio Leonardia said the city will pay its monthly bills.
In September Ceneco general manager Sulpicio Lagarde Jr. disclosed the local government’s average monthly bill reaches P6,663,010.80, while its unpaid bills amount to P271,892,324.06.
City Legal Officer Joselito Bayatan had recommended an “offsetting” of payment since Ceneco also owes the city real property and franchise taxes.
But after the city and Ceneco’s dialogue on Nov. 14, offsetting is no longer an option.
Leonardia said the proposed 2017 city government budget did not have “full allocation” for electricity bills payment, so the local government will have to wait for a few more months for a supplemental budget.
Meanwhile Lagarde said the cooperative also agreed to pay the city franchise taxes and real property taxes for its electric poles. He projected they are set to pay the city government P1.6 million a year.
Ceneco will also help the city government find ways to reduce its monthly bills.
Pilferage is one of the causes of the spike in the city’s bills, Lagarde said.
Ceneco’s technical team is currently monitoring Burgos market, whose bills are around 60 percent higher than those of the two other major markets, Libertad and Central, said the general manager.
It has discovered there were many illegal connections at the Burgos market.
Libertad and Burgos markets’ monthly bills average P40,000 each, while that of Burgos market — which is comparatively smaller than the former two markets — reaches about P100,000, said Lagarde./PN
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