A House of Representatives’ panel on Thursday approved measures that would raise the discount granted to senior citizens on their monthly electric and water consumption.

During the virtual hearing, the Committee on Senior Citizens approved House Bills 1903 and 3040, which would entail an amendment to Republic Act 7432, as amended by RA 9994, or the “Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010”.

HB 1903, authored by Baguio City Rep. Mark Go, proposes to raise the rate of discount granted to senior citizens on their monthly electric and water consumption from the present 5 percent to 10 percent.

“This is indeed essential to mitigate the burden of our elderlies,” Go said.

Meanwhile, Nueva Ecija Rep. Estrellita Suansing, author of HB 3040, pushed for the amendment of Section 4(C) of RA 9994, by applying the 5 percent discount to the first 150 kilowatt-hours of electricity and to the first 50 cubic meters of water, as well as exempting the utility fees from the value added tax.

Committee chair and Senior Citizens Party-list Rep. Rodolfo Ordanes urged his colleagues to continue giving the country’s 10 million elderly the institutionalized relief in basic social services.

“This is our continuing response on rising to the challenge of coming up with important legislative initiatives that will significantly affect the lives of our marginalized elderly, and bridge their participation and access to the benefits of a sustained and improved quality of life,” Ordanes said.

Ordanes noted that aside from the bigger discounts, the proposal would remove the value-added tax in electricity bills and water bills that are registered under the name of senior citizens.

“Kaya’t tiyak na mararamdaman ng ating mga nakatatanda ang ginhawa kapag naisabatas na ito (That’s why the ease [in financial burden] would really be felt by the elderly once these get enacted into law),” Ordanes said. (PNA)