Water rates in areas covered by Metro Manila’s two water concessionaires will be cut starting on April 1 after the state agency on water and sewerage services approved the adjustment to reflect the slight appreciation of the peso against the US dollar.

“There’s going to be a rollback in the prices of water for the second quarter of 2018. This will be effective April 1,” Patrick Lester N. Ty, the chief regulator of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) regulatory office, told reporters on Tuesday.

For west zone concessionaire Maynilad Water Services, Inc., the decrease will be P0.01 per cubic meter (cu.m.), and for the ease zone’s Manila Water Co., the rate cut will be P0.04 per cu.m., he said.

“The reason for the rollback is the average dollar exchange rate in January 2018. The peso appreciated vis-à-vis the dollar. We all know that in February and March, the dollar actually went up; the peso depreciated,” he said.

“But at least the timing was okay with us for this FCDA (foreign currency differential adjustment) because we only took the average exchange rate in January,” he added.

He said the dollar-peso exchange rate in January was at around P50.50, stronger than the P51.30 previously.

Mr. Ty said both Maynilad and Manila Water had been informed of the recommendation of the regulatory office and the subsequent approval by the MWSS board of trustees on March 8, 2018.

The net effect of the adjustment will be a P0.20 and P0.06 reduction in the monthly water bill of Manila Water and Maynilad customers using 10 cu.m. or less, respectively.

For those using 20 cu.m., the corresponding decrease will be P0.45 for Manila Water and P0.23 for Maynilad. The reduction for 30 cu.m. customers is P0.91 for the east zone and P0.46 for the west zone. — Victor V. Saulon

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