MANILA, Philippines – The Supreme Court has affirmed the constitutionality of the universal charge to be collected from electricity consumers by the National Power Corporation (NPC) pursuant to Republic Act 9136 or the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) of 2001.
In a 23-page decision penned by Associate Justice Antonio Eduardo Nachura, the high court said they found no clear violation of the Constitution in the universal charge.
Petitioners Romeo Gerochi, Katulong ng Bayan (KB) and Environmentalist Consumers Network, Inc. (ECN) claimed Section 34 of the EPIRA law is unconstitutional.
Section 34 provides: “Within one year from the effectivity of this act, a universal charge to be determined, fixed and approved by the ERC, shall be imposed on all electricity end-users for the following purposes: (a) Payment for the stranded debts in excess of the amount assumed by the National Government and stranded contract cost of NPC and as well as qualified stranded contract costs of distribution utilities resulting from the restructuring of the industry; (b) missionary electrification; (c) the equalization of the taxes and royalties applied to indigenous or renewable sources of energy vis-à-vis imported energy fuels; (d) an environment charge equivalent to ¼ of the one centavo per kilowatt hour which shall accrue to an environmental fund to be used solely for watershed rehabilitation and management…; (e) a charge to account for all forms of cross-subsidies for a period not exceeding 3 years.”
But the high court said they have already passed on the constitutionality of the law, which it regarded as “one of the landmark pieces of legislation enacted by Congress.”
Petitioners also noted that the universal charge imposed on them is actually a tax which is not under the powers of the Energy Regulation Commission (ERC) to determine and approve pursuant to EPIRA.
They pointed that the power to tax is a legislative function.
But the high court pointed that Section 34 of the EPIRA invokes the State’s police power.
“This power is regulatory in character and in this case, invoked to promote the State’s policies in ensuring the viability of the country’s electric power industry…Universal Charge cannot be classified as a tax since regulation is its primary purpose, making the raising of revenue incidental,” the court said.
The high court also pointed that there is no undue delegation of legislative power to the ERC because the legislature cannot be expected to promulgate laws that will completely cover the demands of everyday life as such “there is a need to delegate to administrative bodies the authority to promulgate rules and regulations to implement a given statute and effectuate its policies..”
Since subordinate legislation requires the completeness and sufficiency of the standards of the regulation, the high court said, EPIRA is complete in all its essential terms and contains sufficient standards.
View story as posted on Inquirer.net
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