COLUMBUS, OHIO (May 20, 2020) – The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) today authorized Northeast Ohio Natural Gas Corp. (NEO) to establish a credit on natural gas customer bills to reflect the impact of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017 on its rates.
NEO will credit residential customers the amount it has over-collected, plus interest, since Jan. 1, 2018 under the previous corporate tax rates. The $500,423 credit, including interest, will be passed back to customers over a 12-month period.
NEO will return to customers normalized excess accumulated deferred income tax (EDIT), estimated by the utility to be approximately $2.3 million, over a federally prescribed time period.
NEO will credit customer’s non-normalized EDIT of $50,867 over a 72-month period.
A residential customer, using approximately 10 Mcf per month, will see a bill reduction of approximately $1.37 per month for the first year.
Background
The TCJA was signed into law on Dec. 22, 2017, which, among other things, reduced the federal corporate income tax rate from 35 to 21 percent, effective Jan. 1, 2018.
On Sept. 26, 2019, the Commission approved a stipulation in Case No. 18-1720-GA-AIR that, among other things, required NEO to file an application for a mechanism to refund to customer’s savings associated with the TCJA.
On Jan. 23, 2020, NEO filed an application to adopt a new tariff to pass to customers the savings due to the TCJA.
On March 4, 2020, PUCO staff filed its review and recommendations.
NEO serves approximately 29,300 customers in 15 counties in Northeast Ohio.
A copy of today’s finding and the order can be found on the PUCO website by clicking the link for Docketing Information System (DIS) and searching for case 20-146-GA-ATA.