The House of Representatives in the Northern Marianas has passed a bill granting customer discounts on power billings.
The bill would require the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation or CUC to waive a portion of the fuel component of power rates.
The discount will amount to 30 percent of the fuel rate for residential customers, and 10 percent for commercial customers.
The measure will continue until the 9 million US dollar appropriated by the Legislature is exhausted.
It is not clear how long the subsidy fund will last, since fuel costs fluctuate rapidly.
But the Legislature expects the fund to last through December 2008.
The CUC executive director, Antonio Muna, has said the discount would likely be applied when the customer comes in to pay at CUC.
The subsidy is designed to give the customers some relief from the skyrocketing cost of power.
