The privatisation of the National Power Corp. (Napocor) will be delayed by up to six months because the Senate failed, before it went into recess in October, to approve a bill granting a franchise to the National Transmission Co (Transco). Allowing for the time needed to prepare for the bidding process, the sale of Napocor’s transmission assets cannot now proceed for several months, and will probably take place in the second half of 2003. The government intends to sell these assets of Napocor’s ahead of its generation assets so that potential investors for the generation facilities will know how the transmission system is to be run.
The government is anxious to privatise Napocor as soon as possible to avoid even greater losses in an enterprise which by September this year had already lost 17 billion pesos.