CUC has no money so the cost will be either passed on to the customers or the cash-strapped government will appropriate funds to subsidize it, he said.
CUC customers Carmen C. Gaskins, Milagro S. Palacios and Connie S. Concepcion are petitioners/plaintiffs in the complaint against CUC and the CNMI government filed by attorney Robert O’Connor of the O’Connor Berman Dotts & Banes law firm to recover the amount CUC illegally charged its customers.
The Supreme Court earlier ruled in favor of Rep. Stanley T. Torres and Jack A. Angello who filed a petition against CUC’s rate increase in 2006.
Muna said to address the fuel cost of that period, CUC came up with the required rate.
“If we didn’t do that, we wouldn’t be able to buy fuel,” he added.
Muna said their customers had to pay for the rising fuel costs so they would manage their usage accordingly.
If CUC used the old rate during that period, its shortfall would have been $8.7 million, he added.
But the higher rate allowed it to collect $18.6 million and incur a shortfall of about $1 million only, he said.
According to Muna, a legislative measure is being considered to provide relief to CUC if the court orders it to reimburse its customers.
