By RALPH JOHN MIJARES
ROXAS City — The Metro Roxas Water District (MRWD) wants to add P184 million to its proposed P847-million take-out loan with the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP).
General Manager Gonzalo Glen Delgado said the management made the proposal during its meeting with MRWD’s interim Board of Trustees on July 11.
The proposed take-out loan, which may reach P1.031 billion, is yet to be approved.
MRWD currently has a loan balance of more than P1 billion with the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA). The current interest is 8.5 percent.
It said acquiring a take-out loan with DBP will mean paying for a lower interest with the bank (only about 5 percent).
If LWUA rejects the proposed take-out loan, MRWD will increase its rates by 29 percent, Delgado said.
But if it approves the proposal, the water rate increase will only be at 10 percent, and there might be no rate increase in the next five to 10 years, he said.
A take-out loan is the one that a payee acquires from a bank that agreed to pay the principal loan amount on behalf of the payee.
LWUA’s Board of Trustees on March 20 approved another P25-million take-out loan with DBP, but the amount was reduced to P19,142,831.16 because MRWD had been paying portions of the principal loan since last year.
Delgado earlier told Panay News that the water district was mired in about P1 billion worth of debt and was operating “at a loss.”
During a City Council session last month, he said MRWD needs to increase its water rates to:
- pay off its loan with LWUA
- lessen operation and maintenance expenses
- add more to their cash reserves, and
- fund its planned capital expenditures for projected service expansion, provision of additional water supply capacity in 2017, and nonrevenue water reduction./PN
