GEROCHI VS DOE, 527 SCRA 696, GR 159796

FACTS:

RA 9136 ( ELECTIC POWER INDUSTRY REFORM ACT OF 2001 OR EPIRA ), which sought
to impose a universal charge on all end-user of electricity for the purpose of funding
NAPOCOR’s project, was enacted and took effect in 2001.

Petitioner contest the constitutionality of the EPIRA, stating that the imposition of the universal
charge on all end-user is oppressive and confiscatory and amounts to taxation without
representation for no giving the consumers a chance to be heard and be represented.

Issue:

W/N the universal charge is a tax

Held:

NO. The assailed universal charge is not a tax, but an exaction in the exercise of the state’s
police power. That public welfare is promoted may be gleamed from section 2 of the EPIRA,
which enumerates the policies of the state regarding electrification. Moreover, the special trust
fund feature of the universal charge reasonably serves and assures the attainment and
perpetuity of the purposes for which the universal charge is imposed (e.g. to ensure the viability
of the country’s electric power industry), further boosting the position that the same is an
exaction primarily in pursuit of the state’s police objectives.