INSIGHTS: If you are developing a headache (aka “migraine” to the rich) from all that babble on bloated electricity rates, just stop listening to the politicians, the businessmen and opinion writers peddling an angle.

Switch off everything & everyone, then lean back and listen to engineer Ramon Ramirez, a 1967 board topnotcher who in his sixties is now active in people’s movements and group discussions on the web.

I have not had the pleasure of meeting him, but I pass on to you MonRam and his insights of megawatt sense and clarity. Aside from the Yahoo groups that post his comments, you can catch him at home at http://monram.wordpress.com.

Below, all the way down, are samples of his postings on power — electricity and otherwise — that had caught my attention.

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MAY 18: The Arroyo administration can take the first step (of lowering electricity rates): Remove the Expanded Value-Added Tax it slaps on the band of moving electrons called electricity (a) as it is generated by the National Power Corp. and the Independent Power Producers, (b) as it is transmitted by TransCo over its high-voltage lines, and (c) as it is being retailed by Distribution Utilities (such as Meralco and Visayan Electric) until it reaches our homes.

In addition, remove: (a) the EVAT on the systems loss charged by DUs to consumers, and (b) the EVAT on local franchise tax, which is really a tax on a tax.

Since the generation charge is more than 50 percent of our bill, Arroyo should remove the tax on the fuel used to run the power plants. (Also scrap the royalty on indigenous natural gas. — fdp)

Since the fuel is already taxed and the cost of the fuel is factored into the generation charge, when Arroyo slaps a tax on the generation charge it includes taxing too the tax on the fuel.

With all those taxes removed, our bills could easily drop by, at the very least, 10 percent, and up to more than 20 percent. What a relief that would be.

It does not require rocket science to know all of the above, so why is Arroyo not doing it?

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MAY 13: Let us say you used 122 kilowatt-hours of electricity last month.

1. A Napocor or IPP plant produced that electricity. Before it got out of the plant, you were slapped a tax of P62.50, or 51 centavos per kwh.

2. The electricity was transported on a TrancCo transmission cable to your Distribution Utility like Meralco. The government again taxed you, this time P12.94, or 11 centavos per kwh.

3. Meralco got the electricity, put it on their lines and delivered it to your home. The government again taxed you, this time P22.72, or 19 centavos per kwh. This even included a tax on a tax, the franchise tax, amounting to P5.67.

4. You also pay for the systems loss (due to pilferage and technical and administrative inefficiencies). The government again taxed you, this time P10.33, or 8 centavos per kwh.

When you intend to flick on a switch, think twice, because once you let the current pass to light your room, you will be paying all those taxes, and it is on a per-hour basis!

Last April, all those taxes amounted to 93 centavos per kwh. It used to be about 70 centavos at the start of the Arroyo regime’s Epira (Electric Power Industry Reform Act).

Arroyo can easily reduce our electric bill if she wants to by removing the VAT which was not there before 2006.

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MAY 9: “Napocor denies overcharging, but says it will refund.” – TV news.

In Pilipino, para mas malinaw: Hindi nag- overcharged ang Napocor pero magre- refund! Nakakalito pa rin, ano?

The truth is that Napocor has collected from us some P10 billion from July 2006 to March 2008 even without filing the necessary papers with the Energy Regulatory Commission as required by law. That comes to about 20 centavos per kwh that we have been paying since 2006.

It took the ERC 22 months to discover that Napocor has been doing that without having filed any papers at all. What a regulatory body!

Is it possible that there are other costs in our electric bills sneaked in by PSALM, TransCo, Napocor and Meralco that the ERC is not aware of? A good item to start with is the systems loss embedded in the transmission charge of TransCo.

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MAY 8: We read in the papers complaints that Meralco and the other Distribution Utilities charge their customers for systems losses.

The culprit is actually a law (RA 7832) enacted in late 1994 that allows:

1. Private utilities like Meralco to charge up to 9.5 percent of power losses to customers.

2. Electric cooperatives like Albay Electric to charge up to 14 percent of power losses to customers.

Beyond those caps, the utilities absorb the losses.

Thus, in my bill I have to pay P99 for systems loss. That is about 9 percent of my total bill. Add the average 10-percent EVAT to the 9 percent of systems loss and that comes up to 19 percent of my bill.

Repeal both laws and we consumers can easily reduce our electric bill by 19 percent.

Now why doesn’t the Arroyo administration remove both the systems loss charge and the EVAT on power? Your guess is as good as mine.