Bacolod City – The Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco) assured member-consumers that it has the ability to pay its short-term obligations, or liabilities, for any request for refund of the consumer’s bill deposit.
In his letter to Wennie Sancho, secretary general of Power Watch Negros Advocates Inc., Ceneco acting general manager Atty. Arnel Lapore reported that as of July 31 this year, the electric cooperative has the Bill Deposit fund, deposited as restricted fund in various banks, amounting to P61.7 million.
The rest of the fund was used in 2022 to pay power suppliers, as approved by the CENECO Board of Directors and National Electrification Administration, and shall be accordingly reimbursed and restored from the general fund as it becomes readily available, Lapore said.
Sancho had earlier inquired of the status and amount of the consumers’ Bill Deposits.
Because of the huge indebtedness of CENECO, Sancho said Power Watch Negros considers the financial difficulties of CENECO when it utilized the funds from the Bill Deposits, despite the fact that it is a restricted fund.
He informed Lapore that Power Watch Negros will be sending the names of the first batch of consumers who will claim their refund as early as possible
In a statement, Sancho said that if the Joint Venture Agreement will be ratified by the consumers in a plebiscite, there will be a payment of P2.4 billion Pesos for CENECO’s distribution asset.
On top of that, he added that Primelectric Holdings Inc. will invest another P2 billion Pesos in the expansion and modernization of CENECO.
Should the JVA be approved by the member-consumers, CENECO will have substantial money to pay for its debts, including the payment of about P215 million for the refund of the consumers’ Bill Deposits to be claimed by the CENECO consumers in addition to the P61.7 million deposited as Bill Deposit Fund in various banks.
The fruition of the JVA will be a “deliverance” for CENECO in paying its more than P613 million indebtedness, Sancho also said.
For the consumers, it will be the full refund of their Bill Deposit of about P277 million. This would also be a deliverance from power outages, unscheduled brownouts, power interruptions and inefficient services, he further claimed. (Gilbert Bayoran via The Visayan Daily Star (TVDS), photo courtesy of TVDS)
