NGO seeks Congress intervention in PSALM rate hike plea
InterAksyon.com
February 9, 2012

MANILA, Philippines – The liabilities of the agency tasked to bring down the debt of state-owned National Power Corp. (Napocor) has ballooned from P807.8 billion when it was created in 2001 to nearly P1 trillion last year, according to non-government Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC).

In a statement, FDC said the surge in its debt shows that Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM), which was created under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 (EPIRA), failed to address the fiscal difficulties of Napocor.

At end-2011, the government owed P915.19 billion, with PSALM accounting for P767.08-billion or 83.8 percent, broken down into P 744.63 billion worth of outstanding liabilities and P22.45 billion in contingent liabilities. This was despite Napocor’s sale of 25 out of 31 power plants, as well as the privatization of the power grid operations under National Transmission Corp. (TransCo).

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