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Higher fuel price impact on consumer goods seen muted

THE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said the higher excise taxes for various fuels will have only a muted impact on consumer goods prices, raising the possibility manufacturer and retailers will absorb much of the costs rather than passing them on fully to the consumer.

Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez said producers and sellers of goods may elect to absorb the costs rather than risk exceeding the suggested retail price (SRP) for certain key commodities, which they are required to observe by law.

“I’m sure that manufacturers won’t increase their prices. Therefore, the groceries shouldn’t increase their prices since it’s in the law that they have to price their products within the SRP,” he added in a news conference.

“[Their pricing] can be lower [than the SRP] but it cannot be higher. That’s what we also have to check — if they are still pricing within the SRPs.”

In a presentation, the DTI estimated the cost impact on key goods such as canned sardines, noodles and breakfast foods such as coffee and pandesal at between P0.04 and P0.14 while additional costs for producers of items like meat loaf, corned beef and cement will be between P0.04 and P1.57.

Food prices are politically sensitive because they form a key component of consumer price index (CPI) baskets in poorer countries, since low-wage families must devote a larger part of their income to food. According to the Philippine Statistics Authority’s CPI primer, published on its Web site, food and nonalcoholic beverages have a 38.98% weighting on the nationwide CPI basket.

Various government agencies have been talking down the impact of price increases in the run-up to the implementation of new taxes tis month. On Wednesday, the DTI said there will be a lag in the rise of soft drink and fuel prices as sellers run down their inventories of goods taxed at the old rates.

Mr. Lopez said the department estimates Jan. 15 to be the point where it can adjust the SRP to reflect the new excise tax on sugar-sweetened beverages. However, if the old inventory still lasts in stores after Jan. 15, DTI may move the adjustment to Jan. 22.

Mr. Lopez said the department has received only one report as of Thursday of unauthorized price increases, which happened in the Visayas, adding that no drastic action to deter profiteers is currently needed. — Anna Gabriela A. Mogato 

The dream of federalism and the reality of centralized government

Repeated calls for federalism by the Duterte administration actually point to more centralization of the national government — the complete opposite of what they’re advocating.

Here are some examples.

1. National taxes have been rising, instead of declining, which could have helped prepare federal states to have their own income and value-added taxes, etc. Instead of lowering the top marginal income tax rate of 32%, it was even raised to 35%. Instead of reducing the VAT to 10% or 8% with few exemptions, the 12% was retained but many sectors were also exempted.

2. Expanding the number of departments and bureaus instead of reducing them. The Department of Transportation and Communication (DoTC) has become two departments — the Department of Transportation (DoTr) and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT). Then there are proposals to create a Department of Housing, Department of Fisheries. A good federal set up is to abolish many existing departments (like NEDA, DA, DENR, DoH, DoT, etc.) and allow the state governments to create their own departments as they see fit, create, or expand local or state revenues to finance these state departments.

3. Forcing national legislative franchising like buses and taxi, instead of decentralized regional or provincial franchising. Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and other House leaders are behind the proposal.

4. Reversing integrated public private partnerships (PPP) where government fiscal exposure is very limited to hybrid PPP where national government budget and foreign borrowings (especially China ODA) is much bigger. A meaningful federal set up will empower the state governments to deal with local infrastructure like airports, seaports, provincial tollways and inter-city MRT/LRT.

5. Centralized declaration of class suspensions. During the anti-martial law rallies in Sept. 21, 2017, Malacañang declared a Luzon-wide or nationwide class suspensions even if many provinces and cities did not even have scheduled rallies. Then during the PISTON jeepney strike in Oct. 16-17, 2017, Malacañang declared nationwide class suspensions, even if many provinces and cities did not even have planned jeep strike. President Duterte should have allowed the mayors and governors to decide, saying something like “the national government will step back from these decisions and it is up to the local governments to decide what’s best for their people.”

Beyond federalism plans contradicted by more centralization of powers and taxation, a long-term alternative would be for the Philippines to split into many new countries and allow these new countries to compete with one another in the field of taxation, governance, infrastructure, trade, and tourism to attract more investors and visitors from around the world. Peace and diplomacy will be retained as fellow ASEAN member-states as well as various multilateral formations and the United Nations.

Many existing Philippine island-provinces are actually comparable in size to existing countries and/or big territories (see table).

The dream of federalism and the reality of centralized government

This is a far out view and may not be considered in the current decade but would appear more viable through time. Singapore will not be as dynamic and developed as it is now if it was just one of many states of Malaysia.

Under the current activities of the Duterte administration, there lies a danger that when federalism is finally enacted, local entrepreneurs and job creators will be walloped with both high national and high local taxes, fees, royalties and various mandatory spending. This will be a good formula to encourage more corruption and black market business operation, or get out of the country and do business elsewhere.

For the federalism plan to be more attractive to the people, the national government should learn to step back, to tax less, regulate less, bureaucratize less, build confidence among the people and investors in the provinces that indeed they will be given more leeway, more opportunities to craft their own political and economic identity.

 

Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr. is President of Minimal Government Thinkers, a member-institute of Economic Freedom Network (EFN) Asia.

minimalgovernment@gmail.com.

GMA targets millennials with 3 exclusively online shows

GMA NETWORK has ventured into creating original online content with the Jan. 1 launch of GMA ONE Online Exclusives, featuring three shows which are screened exclusively on the network’s YouTube page.

The three shows cover a variety of topics, from millennials’ problems, to lifestyle, to fake news.

Adulting with Atom Araullo is about how millennials and young professionals deal with adult issues as Mr. Araullo gives “netizens a peek at his everyday struggles as he faces the responsibilities of being on his own, and living on a budget,” said a company press release.

Meanwhile, #Goals with Gabbi Garcia is similar to many lifestyle channels, with Ms. Garcia exploring “her goals in beauty, style, makeup, travel and music.”

Finally, GMA News reporter Joseph Morong tackles the serious issue of recognizing fake news in Fact or Fake.

“Fact or Fake goes back to one of the tenets of journalism which is fact-checking,” said Mr. Morong in the press release.

New episodes of the shows — each are five- to eight-minutes long — will be uploaded every Monday at 5 p.m. The shows will have “at least 10 episodes,” said Nessa Valdellon, GMA Network’s first vice-president for public affairs, in an e-mail interview with BusinessWorld in late December.

“Each series of GMA ONE will have at least 10 episodes, though likely many more than that as we see these as being potentially long-running programs,” she said.

The online exclusives, Ms. Valdellon said, were in response to the “very, very dramatic uptake in our GMA YouTube following,” and in order to provide “the younger audience with good program options.”

“GMA has a very strong TV audience in the Philippines, especially among older, C2DE viewers [GMA classifies the C bracket into C1 or the upper C, and C2, or lower C]. Millennials, however, watch a lot of content online… In addition, we have seen a very, very dramatic uptake in our GMA YouTube following — our number of subscribers as well as amount of time spent watching — the past year and we want to expand this now huge audience further,” she explained.

The shows’ pilot episodes showed Mr. Araullo’s and Ms. Garcia’s utilizing the “vlog” style (where personalities bring a handheld camera around as they go about their day for a more intimate feel) though they also have sitdowns in front of the camera as they dispense advice.

In the first episodes, Mr. Araullo gives the audience a snippet of how he managed to move out of his family home and into his own abode while Ms. Garcia brought her viewers along for a trip to the beach.

“We noticed how popular ‘how-to’ videos are with millennials, hence the concepts of Adulting with Atom Araullo and #Goals with Gabbi Garcia. Both [Mr. Araullo and Ms. Garcia] have a very strong millennial online following so we wanted to reach the age range of their audiences,” Ms. Valdellon said of the rationale behind the shows.

Mr. Morong’s show was a bit different as it mostly showed him inside a café doing an explainer about the definition of fake news while inserting news articles and clips as examples.

“Meanwhile, fake news is one of the biggest issues that face us today and since most of it now spreads is online, it is just appropriate that we have an online show that discusses it,” she added.

In the series press conference held on Dec. 20 at the GMA Coop building in Quezon City, Mr. Morong pointed out that his show was timely because the country is nearing the 2019 midterm elections and he hopes his show will help viewers to form informed opinions.

Ms. Valdellon said the online exclusive content “marks the new era in our content production and programming.”

“We’ve been tracking Philippines and particularly GMA YouTube viewers closely the past years and we’ve seen which particular kinds of content are doing well and which audience these hit. The edgier content in fact has been the more successful. For our producers, honestly, we find it exciting to finally be producing content for an audience of people like ourselves — viewers in their teens, 20’s and 30’s — as for decades now we have been producing television content primarily for housewives 40 and up,” she said. — Zsarlene B. Chua

AirAsia plans Manila-Osaka flights by 2nd half

PHILIPPINES AIRASIA, Inc. is looking to mount flights from Manila to Osaka, Japan by the second half of the year.

Philippines AirAsia chief executive officer (CEO) Dexter M. Comendador said they have already received the entitlements for flights to Japan, which has recently become a popular destination for Filipino travelers.

“We have [entitlements] for Osaka, around second semester. [From] Manila,” Mr. Comendador told reporters last month.

This will be Philippines AirAsia’s first route between the Philippines and Japan.

The budget carrier will fly daily to the Indonesian cities of Bali and Jakarta starting Jan. 19 and Jan. 9, respectively.

Philippines AirAsia is planning to launch its initial public offering (IPO) by the second half of this year. The company expects to raise up to $250 million from the IPO, which will be used mainly for expanding its facilities.

The IPO is part of the plan of AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes to consolidate its Southeast Asian units under one listed holding company, which is seen to create economies of scale and strengthen its position as the primary regional airline. — P.P.C. Marcelo

Police team leader in shooting surfaces at NCRPO

THE TEAM leader of the Mandaluyong City police personnel who figured in the shooting that killed two persons and wounded two others on Dec. 28 surfaced at the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) in Taguig City on Wednesday. Senior Inspector Maria Cristina Vasquez had been declared absent without official leave since Dec. 30. She and nine other police officers involved in the incident will be placed under restrictive custody while the case is being investigated. — PNA/interaksyon.com

See full story on https://goo.gl/CBjnHV

Imports Brownlee, Balkman stamp class for Alab Pilipinas

BACK-TO-BACK PBA champion Justin Brownlee and his fellow import Renaldo Balkman didn’t have much problem stamping their class with new team Alab Pilipinas in the ASEAN Basketball League.

Mr. Brownlee, back in action after steering the Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings to their second straight Governors’ Cup triumph, knocked in 29 points to lead the way for Alab Pilipinas.

His partner, Mr. Balkman, who is out to redeem himself from a forgettable stint last time he reinforced the old San Miguel Beer franchise then known as Petron, had a double-double performance of 17 points and 11 rebounds.

Head coach Jimmy Alapag could only heaped praise on the two imports who barely had difficulty fitting quickly to the team’s system despite the short period of time.

“It’s been tough for us the last one and a half week. I have to commend these two imports. They just arrived Wednesday morning but played well along with the locals,” said Mr. Alapag.

Both Messrs. Brownlee and Balkman are familiar fixtures in Philippine basketball, but are remembered in contrasting ways.

Mr. Brownlee became endeared to PBA fans when his buzzer-beating three-pointer sent the Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings to their first championship under Tim Cone in 2016 against ironically Meralco, a team where Mr. Alapag last played for.

Last year, Mr. Brownlee came back and fulfilled his mission of leading the Gin Kings to back-to-back crowns.

Mr. Balkman, on the other hand, a dark past, which he wants to erase.

He was banned from playing in the PBA after choking his own teammate, Arwind Santos, during Petron’s elimination round game.

Now given a second chance to put everything behind him, Mr. Balkman wants to reconnect to Filipino fans and Wednesday night’s 90-79 win over the Westport Dragons could be the start of something promising.

“I was surprised. It felt great. I know I did a lot of things in the past. But past is past. I just lost my head. Today is a great day to start,” he added. — Rey Joble

Migrant worker evictions tear at Beijing’s backbone

THEY FUELED their nation’s dramatic economic rise, toiling in jobs far from home, but China’s migrant workers are now finding themselves increasingly unwelcome as authorities try to cap the population explosions in key cities.

Lin Huiqing moved to Beijing to look for work when his children were still in diapers.

For the last 18 years, he has seen his family just once a year, the rest spent doing the hard labor most Beijingers would prefer to avoid.

The 50-year-old is one of hundreds of millions of migrants who moved from the countryside to the cities, a colossal demographic shift that made China’s ascent possible.

But last month Lin was evicted from the village where he lived on the capital’s outskirts, another victim of a city-wide demolition plan to limit Beijing’s population to 23 million by 2020 — a target that could come at the cost of its economy.

“If I go home, I have no way to support my wife and kids,” Lin lamented.

According to the Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily, the city plans to demolish 40 million square metres of “illegal” structures.

Many are the homes and shops of low-income migrants like Lin.

When he first arrived in Beijing, Lin and his friends pooled their money and took out loans to purchase delivery trucks.

He made a living hauling the wares of small-scale shopkeepers and traders, but the moving business has taken a hit as the city condemns buildings en masse, evicting tens of thousands into the winter cold.

“Our customers are commoners like us,” he said. “With their small businesses shut down, there’s no stock for us to move. We’re basically unemployed now.”

Authorities say the campaign, which kicked into high gear after a fire in an illegal structure killed 19 in November, is needed to clean the city up once and for all.

But it is also removing vibrant chunks of Beijing’s economy, such as retail and small scale manufacturing, and throwing into chaos other sectors like delivery, the bedrock of the booming e-commerce trade.

Relegated to the periphery, migrants have kept China’s economy humming, handling the difficult, dirty and sometimes dangerous work that the city’s permanent residents won’t do.

Urban industries like construction, domestic work and sanitation are almost completely staffed by migrants.

Eli Friedman, associate professor of international and comparative labor at Cornell University, said China’s biggest cities “simply cannot function without migrant workers.”

“If every non-local were to actually be removed from cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, these economic engines for the whole country would completely collapse,” he told AFP.

But that is exactly what is happening, said Li Ning, one of the 60,000 delivery drivers who criss-cross Beijing’s streets.

Li was recently evicted from a village on the city’s outskirts, forcing him into an apartment where the rent quadrupled.

Then authorities came for his delivery company’s warehouse, forcing staff to sort packages on the sidewalk and sending his income plummeting.

“In Beijing all the migrants are leaving. We can’t make it here anymore,” he said, adding he plans to leave for good during the upcoming spring festival.

Another delivery franchise owner surnamed Wang said she will “give up” if authorities knock down her current warehouse, which they marked in black paint with the character “chai” — (demolish) — in mid-December.

She had just moved in Dec. 1, after she had to close two other delivery hubs this year, forcing her to cut her work force from 240 couriers to 60.

“There’s no stability. I don’t know what I’ll be facing tomorrow,” she said, tears welling in her eyes.

The demolitions have also hit Beijing’s retail sector, decimating once affordable mom and pop shops and pushing consumers online or into high-end malls.

Two years ago, Ge Guoxiang moved with his wife from their home province of Jiangsu to take over his brother’s textiles stall.

It had thrived for over 20 years in Beijing’s Tuanjiehu Tianyu market. But three months ago, they received notice that authorities will shutter the market.

Dozens of small-scale community markets have been forced to shut down this year — including the iconic Beijing Zoo market, where hundreds of merchants organized rare street protests against the evictions.

Officials said they have designated certain areas in the neighboring Hebei province where merchants can move their businesses to.

But Ge is unconvinced.

“It takes years for businesses like ours to build up clientele. Now we have to start over,” he said.

“Our clients are mostly older people who don’t know how to shop online. Where will they go?” — AFP

5-year driver’s license out

THE Land Transportation Office (LTO)-7 has rolled out driver’s license cards with five-year validity. In Cebu yesterday, Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Lloyd Dino was among the first to avail of the license. “This is part of the strong commitment of President Rodrigo Duterte to help decongest LTO from long queuing. It only took me at least 15 minutes to get my plastic driver’s license,” Mr. Dino said. — The Freeman

See full story on https://goo.gl/wSQaFk

Music sales soar in US, as streaming takes over

NEW YORK — Music sales grew at a robust pace for a third straight year in the United States in 2017 as listeners kept flocking to streaming outlets, an industry monitor said Wednesday.

Analytical firm BuzzAngle Music said that consumption in the world’s largest music market jumped 12.8% in 2017, well outpacing the 4.2% growth seen a year earlier.

On-demand streaming services led by Spotify are quickly replacing downloads on platforms such as iTunes, which shook up the music business a generation ago.

BuzzAngle Music found that nearly three times as many songs were streamed on an average 2017 day in the United States — 1.67 billion — than the 563.7 million tracks that were downloaded over the entire year.

Audio streaming grew overall by more than 50% in 2017 from the previous year.

In more good news for the industry, BuzzAngle Music said that 80% of audio streams came through subscription sites, as the music business encourages listeners to pay monthly rates rather than seek out songs for free online.

The growth reflects a reversal of the long rut in music sales following the rise of the Internet.

But not everyone is cheering, with many artists complaining that they are seeing little of the profit.

Wixen Music Publishing, which owns rights to songs by artists such as Neil Young and The Doors, last week filed a $1.6-billion suit against Spotify, arguing that the Swedish company failed to seek proper licenses in its rush to build its catalog of 30 million songs.

And in a recent Twitter thread that drew wide attention among artists, Geoff Barrow of English trip-hop group Portishead said it was “almost impossible to make a living” through Spotify for musicians who do not figure out how to “work the system well.”

Spotify counters that it has provided a rare source of growth and helped bring new audiences to artists, who increasingly make their living off concerts rather than recordings.

Spotify faces a growing number of rivals including the streaming services of tech giants Apple and Amazon, as well as Paris-based Deezer and rapper Jay-Z’s Tidal.

VINYL BOOMS, WITH DIFFERENT MARKET
While sales of full albums kept dropping in 2017, there was one big exception — vinyl.

Album sales on vinyl grew by 20%, keeping up the revival of the classic format that has been embraced anew by hardcore fans and collectors.

Vinyl buyers disproportionately bought rock and older titles.

The top-selling vinyl title of the year was a soundtrack to the superhero film Guardians of the Galaxy, which was first released in 2014 and featured songs by music legends such as David Bowie and Marvin Gaye.

The taste of vinyl lovers was sharply different from mainstream choices. Pop superstar Taylor Swift’s Reputation was by far the top-selling album of 2017, selling nearly 1.9 million copies, according to BuzzAngle Music.

Swift maximized sales by keeping Reputation off streaming services for its first three weeks — an increasingly unusual commercial strategy that only stars with a dedicated fan base can pull off.

Sales of cassettes — which have also found a renewed following, in part for their kitsch appeal — more than doubled in 2017, but at fewer than 100,000 copies, the format remains miniscule in the overall market.

The US sales are in line with global trends. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry will release worldwide figures in the coming months. — AFP

Philab partners with Italian company IMA

PHILAB HOLDINGS Corp. said on Thursday its subsidiary has partnered with Italy-based Industria Macchine Automatiche S.p.A (IMA) to distribute automated machineries for the processing and packaging of pharmaceutical products in the Philippines.

In a statement, the listed health care company said Philab Industries Inc. is now the exclusive distributor of IMA pharma machines in the country. It has already sold several units to Pascual Labs and Amherst Laboratories Inc. (UNILAB) since its partnership began.

“It is important for our big pharma companies to use high technology equipment in producing large quantity of quality and consistent tablets and capsules to offer the Philippine market. This is where the expertise of IMA comes in with more than 50 years of reputation in the global pharma industry. Philab pursued this partnership to successfully satisfy the rising demands of the pharma industry,” Paolo Cagalingan, executive vice president of sales and business development, said in a statement.

Maurizio Ferretti, managing director of IMA Pacific Co. Ltd., said the company picked Philab as the sole distributor of its equipment due to its strong performance and reputation.

“We are hopeful that Philab would effectively capture the needs of the Philippine market,” Mr. Ferretti said.

For the first nine months of 2017, Philab narrowed its net loss attributable to the parent to P107 million versus a loss of P860 million from year-ago levels. Revenues were recorded at P155 million for the period.

Blizzard pounds US Northeast as snow sweeps across South

CHARLESTON, S.C./BOSTON — Heavy snow and high winds pounded the US East Coast along a front stretching from Maine as far south as North Carolina early on Thursday, knocking out power, icing over roadways and closing hundreds of schools.

The storm, the product of a rapid and rare sharp drop in barometric pressure known as bombogenesis that on Wednesday dumped snow on Florida’s capital Tallahassee for the first time in 30 years, was expected to last through the day.

States of emergencies were in effect in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia and blizzard warnings from the Canadian border as far south as Virginia.

Much of the eastern US is in the grip of a sustained cold spell that has frozen part of Niagara Falls, played havoc with public works and impeded firefighting in places where temperatures barely broke 20 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 6 centigrade).

Areas around Boston were forecast to see about one foot (30 cm) of snow on Thursday, and the National Weather Service predicted a similar amount and wind gusts of up to 55 mph (90 kph) in New York City.

Schools were ordered to close in both cities.

“This could bring some very dangerous conditions,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said late on Wednesday.

“Both rush hours will be affected,” Boston Mayor Marty Walsh earlier told a news conference. “Be patient. With the amount of snow we’re getting here, we could be plowing your street and a half hour later it could look like we haven’t been there.”

SOUTHERN SNOW
Private forecaster Accuweather said snow would fall quickly during the day, at a rate of several inches per hour, with the storm intensified by the bombogenesis effect.

Also known as a bomb cyclone, the phenomenon occurs when a storm’s barometric pressure drops by 24 millibars in 24 hours.

The rare type of storm struck the US Southeast on Wednesday, also dumping snow in parts of South Carolina and eastern Georgia, said meteorologist Patrick Burke of the federal Weather Prediction Center.

More than 35,000 customers were without power in Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia early on Thursday, utilities reported online.

A part of US-13 at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel in Virginia was closed due to high winds early on Thursday while state transportation departments throughout the region reported dozens of delays due to deteriorating roads conditions.

Late on Wednesday night, a baggage car and two sleeper cars on an Amtrak train traveling from Miami to New York, with 311 passengers aboard, derailed in as it was slowly backing into a station in Savannah, Georgia. No one was injured, an Amtrak spokesman said.

The cold has been blamed for at least nine deaths over the past few days, including two homeless people in Houston. — Reuters

DoE to propose up to 3-year FiT extension for biomass, river hydro

THE Department of Energy (DoE) has drafted a circular that will call for the extension of the feed-in-tariff (FiT) for biomass and run-of-river projects, giving developers a chance to finish their stalled plant construction and avail of the guaranteed rate for their energy output for 20 years.

“We’re looking at three years or until the capacity limit is reached for run-of-river hydro or biomass,” Energy Undersecretary Felix Wiliam B. Fuentebella told reporters, without giving details on when the proposal will come into force.

“There is a draft circular for the extension for three years [for both technologies], whichever comes first — capacity or date,” he added.

Mr. Fuentebella was referring to the installation target of 250 megawatts (MW) for both biomass or small hydro, which was set by the previous administration but was not fully subscribed by the end-2017 deadline.

This time, he said the extension’s deadline would be the full subscription of the installation target or three years, whichever comes first.

Based on the latest DoE data, only five run-of-river hydro projects with a total capacity of 34.60 MW were awarded by the department certificates of endorsement to the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) for FiT eligibility as of November, leaving a balance of 215.4 MW out of the 250-MW target.

The DoE has no update on the five potential projects with a capacity of 82.7 MW that it expected to make it by the Dec. 2017 deadline.

The ERC set a FiT rate of P5.90 per kWh for run-of-river hydro. All five projects qualified for that rate. The rate has been degressed in 2017 to P5.8705 per kWh as called for by the FiT rules.

For biomass projects, 19 projects with a total capacity of 138.61 MW were awarded certificates of eligibility as of November, or a balance of 111.39 MW from the 250-MW target. Only one more project with a capacity of 2.6 MW was expected to receive the certificate by end-2017.

Of the 19 projects endorsed to the ERC, 15 qualified for the P6.63 per kWh rate for the first round, while four qualified for the P6.5969-degressed rate for 2017.

The FiT system offers a fixed rate for the electricity produced by developers of solar, wind, biomass, ocean energy and run-of-river hydro power plants to encourage investments in emerging renewable energy technologies. The first projects to be completed under a prescribed power installation target are awarded the guaranteed FiT for 20 years.

Consumers who are supplied with power through the distribution or transmission network share in the cost of the FiT scheme in part through a uniform charge per kilowatt-hour that appears in their monthly electricity bill as “FiT-allowance.”

National Renewable Energy Board (NREB), which advises the DoE about the direction for renewables, earlier recommended a FiT extension for biomass and run-of-river hydro. Both solar and wind have been fully subscribed. Ocean energy remains a nascent technology. — Victor V. Saulon

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