No change in electricity tariffs until June 30

PETALING JAYA: There will be no changes in the current electricity tariffs for consumers in Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Labuan, as the government agreed to maintain the base tariff rates from Jan 1 until June 30, 2017.
This followed the government's decision to maintain power tariff rebate of 1.52 sen per kiloWatt hour (kWh), amounting to RM766.33 million in the peninsula, said Energy, Green Technology and Water (KeTTHA) Minister Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili in a statement today.
At the same time, he said the government continues to uphold the 1.20 sen/kWh rebate for consumers in Sabah and Labuan.
"With the continuation of the rebate, the consumers will not go to pay for higher electricity bills if the total electricity consumption is still the same," he said.
Ongkili said the decision was due to the decline in the global liquefied natural gas and coal prices, as well as better efficiency of coal power plants.
He said the rebate also takes into consideration additional gas cost following the government's subsidy rationalisation plan and decision to further increase the piped gas price from the current RM19.70 per mmBTU (million metric British thermal units) to RM21.20 per mmBTU.
The new gas price will be effective from Jan 1 next year.
To date, Ongkili said the consumers have enjoyed closed to RM4.1 billion of total electricity bill rebates in the peninsula, and RM126.26 million in Sabah, which has been given from March 1, 2015 until June 30, 2017.
The rebate will be applicable to all consumers except domestic consumers with monthly consumption of 300 kWh and below.