Ceneco and city gov't settles dispute, to come out with compromise agreement
BACOLOD CITY – The Bacolod City government and Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco) were ordered by Regional Trial Court Judge Gorgonio Ybañez to submit a compromise agreement on the issue of unsettled accounts.
Judge Ybañez said the two parties must submit the compromise agreement on October 24, 2008 at the hearing of the injunction case.
The city is asking Ceneco to pay its obligation on franchise tax while the cooperative asked the city to pay its outstanding balance. Based on the contention of the coop, the outstanding balance of the city covering June 2007 to July 2008 is about P33 million while the city's unpaid electric bills with Ceneco is almost similar.
On Fridays hearing, the city agreed to pay its account with Ceneco from June 2007 to July 2008 and update its current bill from July 2008 up to the present. The June 2007-July 2008 accounts will be divided into twelve monthly installments.
Atty. Allan Zamora, City Legal Officer, said he will report the outcome of the hearing to Mayor Evelio Leonardia when he arrives from South Korea. When Leonardia is amenable to the proposal the Bacolod Sangguniang Panlungsod will give an authority to sign the compromise agreement with Ceneco and ratify it later after the signing.
Ceneco, on the other hand, agreed to pay its unpaid franchise tax liabilities to the city from 2005 or 2006 based on its distribution charges without prejudice to the final resolution of the issue on the meaning of "gross receipts".
The cooperative will file a case for declaratory relief for the court to define the exact meaning of "gross receipts" because this will be the basis of the computation of its franchise tax liabilities to the city.
The city and Ceneco have its own interpretation of the "gross receipts". The city considers the whole income of Ceneco as the gross receipt, while the contention of Ceneco is that its gross receipts should be limited only to its distribution charges since they are considered as distribution utility.