FUEL pump prices and electricity rates are going down.
Oil companies on Monday announced they will reduce gasoline prices by P0.70 per liter, diesel by P4.30 per liter, and kerosene by P4.88 per liter. The oil price rollback takes effect on Tuesday.
Oil companies implement weekly price adjustments to reflect movements in the world oil market.
Meanwhile, the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) announced a decrease of P0.0428 per kilowatt hour (kWh) in the August electricity rate, bringing down the overall rate for a typical household to P14.7833 from P14.8261 per kWh in July.
For residential customers of Meralco who are consuming 200 kWh, this adjustment translates to a reduction of around P9 in the total electricity bill.
Meralco Vice President and Head of Corporate Communications Joe Zaldarriaga said during a briefing that this month’s overall electricity rate reduction is largely due to the P9.5 billion refund-equivalent to P0.5861 per kWh for residential customers-that the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) authorized Meralco to implement over a six-month period beginning this August.
The latest refund covers the difference between Meralco’s Actual Weighted Average Tariff (AWAT) and its approved distribution tariff for the period January to December 2025. Customers will see this refund as ‘AWAT Refund/(Collect) 2’ in the distribution portion of their bills starting this month. This refund is on top of the ongoing refund of P0.4278 per kWh that also pertains Meralco’s AWAT for residential customers.
‘As earlier explained by the regulator, this refund stems from the delay in rate reset process of distribution utilities in the country that includes Meralco. We submitted the refund application in accordance with the rules. We hope that this will help provide relief to our customers and assure them that this will be implemented in a transparent manner,’ Zaldarriaga said.
This month’s rate reduction would have been bigger if not for the upward movement of other bill components, particularly charges from the National Grid Corporation (NGCP) which posted an increase of P0.3024 per kWh due to higher ancillary service (AS) charges from the Reserve Market (RM).
Costs from the RM accounted for about 60 percent of NGCP charges this billing month. Starting this August, the AS charge will appear as a separate line item from the transmission charge, as directed by the ERC.