COUNCILOR Dindo Ramos said the Bacolod City Water District (Baciwa) should present a legal basis on its move to increase the Service Connection Maintenance Fee (SCMF) from P2 to P15 effective February 2018 billing.
Ramos, chairperson of committee on information, communication and energy, said he will hold a public hearing on January 30 on the scheduled implementation of the SCMF.
He said he invited the officers of Baciwa to present the legal basis.
“They will implement about 700 percent increase on their service maintenance fee and we are talking here of more than 50,000 consumers,” he said.
Baciwa general manager Juliana Carbon earlier said that on January 12, the Board of Directors approved Resolution 009 for the adjustment of the SCMF from P2 to P15 starting February.
She said the SCMF covers the costs of water meter, elevation, testing, replacements, and other maintenance services.
Carbon pointed out that since 1973, the SCMF was only P2, and it should increase now because of the increase in the cost of maintaining the service connections or the water meters.
However, Ramos said that if Baciwa has no legal basis for the SCMF increase, they will oppose its implementation.
“Once you will implement an additional burden to consumers, you need the approval of the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA). As much as possible, we will oppose this until such time they can present their legal basis to collect the SCMF increase,” he said.
Bus fare increase
Meanwhile, Ramos, who also chairs the committee on transportation, said he will also hold a public hearing on the implementation of fare increase of Vallacar Transit Inc., operator of Ceres Liner buses, on January 30.
He said the Vallacar Transit should also present its legal basis in implementing the fare increase.
Vallacar Transit Inc. earlier said that it is necessary to implement a fare increase of up to P3 after the huge spike in the prices of petroleum products since last year hugely affected its operations.
Starting last week, the bus firm increased the fair ranging from P1 to P3, depending on the route or the distance within Negros Occidental.
Ramos said Vallacar Transit cannot implement the fare increase without an approval from the LTFRB.
“If they failed to get an approval from the LTFRB, they are unauthorized to implement a fare increase. They should file a petition for fare adjustment,” he said.
