Loan collections of the National Electrification Administration (NEA) have reached P1.710 billion from January to September 2018, keeping it on track to meet its full-year target.
Latest data show the NEA posted 99-percent collection efficiency on the loan amortization payments of the electric cooperatives (ECs) in the first nine months of the year.
The P1.710-billion generated is higher by 83 million than the P1.627 billion actual collection by the NEA from the ECs in the same period last year.
In the third quarter of the year alone, the NEA collected P495 million, surpassing the P482 million target for the period by 2.67 percent.
“As always, through this program, aside from payment fidelity, we expect better service, improved efficiency and well-capacitated operations from electric cooperatives,” NEA Administrator Edgardo Masongsong said.
“This is not a cure-all remedy to the headaches besetting them. We, therefore, enjoin those who avail of the agency’s assistance to be on the look-out for these parameters. Because they are utilities, it all boils down to service,” the NEA chief added.
Since the inception of the NEA’s lending program, total loan collections from the ECs have reached P22.377 billion as of September 2018, an increase of 1.61 percent than the P22.022 billion corporate target.
The state-run agency has been offering financial assistance to the ECs, through various loan windows, to finance their capital expenditure projects and rehabilitation of power distribution systems.
The NEA’s lending program includes regular, calamity and concessional loans, stand-by and short-term credit loans, single-digit system loss loan, renewable energy loan and modular generator sets loan.
The short-term credit facility is meant to finance the ECs monthly cash shortfall in settling their power accounts with the generation companies.
The stand-by credit facility, meanwhile, is intended to strengthen the ECs creditworthiness with the generation companies and the electricity market operator.
All ECs under the NEA supervision are qualified to avail of these loans with competitive interest rate. ###