Manila, Aug. 12 -- Senator Francis Pangilinan has filed a bill seeking to remove system loss charges from household electricity bills, a move he said could reduce consumers' total electricity costs by about 5 percent to 10 percent.

"Hindi dapat consumer ang sumasalo (Consumers must not bear the burden)," Pangilinan said in a statement on Wednesday.

Senate Bill 2378, or the proposed Systems Loss Charge Removal Act, filed on Aug. 5, seeks to ensure that households are not made to pay for electricity losses they neither caused nor consumed.

The system loss charge allows distribution utilities to recover the cost of electricity lost between the amount delivered to their networks and the amount ultimately measured and billed to end-users....