Meralco announces electricity rate hike of P0.41 per kWh

By Alena Mae S. Flores

MANILA Electric Co. announced a power rate increase of P0.4183 per kilowatt-hour in June on higher prices at the spot market and with the completion of the last refund.

Meralco said the overall rate for a typical household went up to P11.9112 per kWh this month from P11.4929 per kWh in May.

The adjustment is equivalent to an increase of around P84 in the monthly electricity bill of Meralco residential customers.

Meralco spokesperson Joe Zaldarriaga said the completion of distributionrelated refund of P0.8656 per kWh in May triggered the rate increase in June.

Meralco implemented four Distribution Rate True-Up adjustments from March 2021 to May 2023 totaling P48.3 billion which translated to about P1.8009-per-kWh refund for residential customers.

“These refunds benefitted Meralco’s customers over the past two years as these helped temper increases in electricity bills at a time of financial distress and uncertainty for many,” Meralco head of regulatory management office Jose Ronald Valles said. Zaldarriaga said the lower generation charge tempered the impact of the high spot market prices and the refund completion.

The generation charge went down

By Darwin G. Amojelar

GCASH said Friday it expanded its crossborder payment service to the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy.

The company said the cross-border payment service is part of the e-wallet’s strengthened collaboration and partnership with Alipay+ to offer a seamless and secure payment experience and real-time foreign exchange with no service fee, allowing customers to a hassle-free and rewarding travel experience abroad.

Among the key merchants and stores that can accept GCash via Alipay+ are Harrods, Liberty London and Harvey Nichols in the UK; Printemps in France; Müller and dm-drogerie markt in Germany; itTaxi and IVS Group, the leader in the vending machines market, in Italy.

by P0.4195 per kWh from P7.6697 per kWh in May to P7.2502 per kWh in June on lower costs from Meralco’s power supply agreements and independent power producers.

Charges from Meralco’s PSAs and IPPs decreased by P0.5871 per kWh and P0.5854 per kWh, respectively, on improved average plant dispatch and lower coal prices.

These mitigated the P2.0187-perkWh increase in Wholesale Electricity Spot Market charges due to tight supply conditions in Luzon.

Peak demand in May reached 12,431 MW, the highest on record. The grid was also placed on yellow and red alerts on May 8.

Pse Index Closing

Friday, June 9, 2023 -32.21 PTS.

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F oreign e xchange r ate Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas • FRIDAY, JUNE 9, 2023

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“In line with our fervent commitment to make our customers’ everyday lives better and more convenient, we want to make sure that they can maximize their GCash account not only locally but wherever they are across the world,” said GCash president and chief executive Martha Sazon.

“We look forward to expanding to other markets abroad soon and to partner with even more merchants in 2023,” she said.

GCash is continuously expanding its international payment touchpoints in partnership with Alipay+. Aside from the European destinations, the Philippine e-wallet can be used to pay in select merchants across Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and Qatar.

It is also making its services available to more Filipinos worldwide as the GCash app can now be used with international numbers in the US, UK, Canada, Japan, Italy and Australia.

TRADE deficit fell in April from a year ago, on lower prices of global commodities, the Philippine Statistics Authority said Friday. Data showed the trade deficit, or the difference between the value of exports and imports, reached $4.53 billion in April, down from $5.1 billion in March and $5.32 billion a year ago.

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DIGITAL SOLUTIONS. Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. executive vice president and chief innovation and inclusion officer Lito Villanueva banners RCBC’s innovative digital financial solutions including RCBC Digital, DiskarTech, and ATM Go through the RCBC MoneyBela Barangayan Banking, a key financial inclusion program aligned with the Marcos administration’s agenda towards a digital economy.

MoneyBela Barangayan Banking boosted bank onboarding in rural areas by 210 percent reached 13,116 barangays or about 31 percent of the 42,000 total barangays nationwide, enabled millions of unbanked and underserved Filipinos to open their first basic deposit accounts and grew gross transaction volume by 103 percent.

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