The Michigan Public Service Commision Wednesday approved a 25 million dollar refund to customers of DTE Gas.
The refund stems from lower taxes state utilities are paying due to the impact of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which lowered the corporate tax rate from 35 to 21 percent.
Nick Assendelft is with the Commission. He said this is step 2 in the state’s plan to ensure customers see a benefit from the federal tax cuts.
“In May step one was approved and that resulted in declines of bills of about $2.12 a month.”
Assendelft said step two will see a further reduction to ratepayers of $2.21 per month on average.
He said the refund stems from a six month period after the tax cut went into effect but before the Commision lowered customer rates. Assendelft said the refund will be dispersed over a similar period of time.
“These will go into effect January of next year and run through June of next year. Basically a six month period. These are savings from a six month period and we’ll be returning them over a six month period starting in January of 2019.”
He said more rate cuts are still to come.