Ilocos Norte: The Ilocos Norte Electric Cooperative (INEC) has launched an investigation after discovering that approximately 600 member-consumers are not registered within its system. This revelation was made public by acting general manager Cipriano Martinez during a press conference held at the INEC main office in Dingras town.

According to Philippines News Agency, these unregistered consumers are believed to be a significant factor contributing to the high systems loss charges currently impacting registered consumers. Martinez emphasized the urgency of addressing this issue, stating, "Whether it is intentional or not, we really need to correct that." He elaborated that INEC member-consumers collectively incur around PHP10 million per month due to systems loss charges.

Systems loss is defined as unbilled electricity, which can result from pilferage or inefficiencies during the transmission and distribution process. Martinez noted that this accounts for an estimated 10 percent of the total electric bill for consumers, with approximately 6 percent attributed to technical causes and the remaining 4 percent to non-technical causes.

Martinez assured that the utility's management is actively implementing measures to mitigate these system loss charges. As Ilocos Norte's sole power distribution utility, INEC is under new management and is taking steps to ensure accountability among its consumers. In the past two weeks, a comprehensive house-to-house survey was conducted among its 185,000 member-consumer-owners to verify and update their registration status.

This initiative was prompted by a directive from the Bureau of the Internal Revenue, which ordered INEC to update its records, including the registration of its meter gadgets, to accurately determine its taxable income.