Imee to Bongbong: Consider Devanadera as next DOE Sec

Sen. Imee Marcos, elder sister of presumptive president Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., believes that outgoing Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) chairperson Agnes Devanadera is fit to become the next Department of Energy (DOE) secretary. 

The senator lauded Devanadera’s call to remove the value-added tax (VAT) on power generation costs and maintained only for power distribution, which is in line with her proposals under Senate Bill (SB) 219. 

SB 219 seeks to exempt the sale of electricity from VAT, as well as the sale or importation of machines and equipment used in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity. 

Sen. Marcos said that removing VAT on electricity charges will benefit both household and commercial end-users and at the same time, make the Philippines more attractive to foreign investors. 

Devenadera has asked the next administration to stop taxing generation charges when billed to distribution utilities and when billed to customers, saying that this is an issue of double taxation.

Sen. Marcos added that the country needs to mitigate the uncontrollable increase in costs of power generation dependent on oil and gas as these commodities will remain volatile due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict 

The outgoing ERC chief had also asked the incoming administration to remove the excise tax on coal and petroleum products to lessen the impact of international prices. 

Photo from Agnes Devenedera’s Twitter Page

Photo from Sen. Imee Marcos’ Website