The government’s four-month electricity bill relief for households will cost RM248 million, with Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) covering most of it, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof said in a written parliamentary reply on Thursday (Nov 12).
Fadillah, who is also the energy transition and water transformation minister, said RM180 million was set aside to exempt eligible households from additional fuel adjustment charges. The government and TNB shared that cost for September, while TNB is bearing the full cost from October to December.
TNB is also absorbing RM36 million in retail charges, while the government is covering RM32 million in sales and service tax (SST) exemptions, he said in reply to a question from Lim Guan Eng (PH-Bagan).
The relief applies to households that use up to 800 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity a month, which works out to a bill of about RM328 or less. Eligible households do not pay fuel adjustment surcharges, retail charges or SST on their bills until Dec 31.
About eight million households, or roughly 90% of domestic electricity users in Peninsular Malaysia, are expected to benefit. The government raised the limit from 600kWh to 800kWh in September after complaints about higher bills during the hot weather and haze.
The ministry did not say exactly how much of the RM248 million TNB would end up paying, as the fuel adjustment cost for September was shared with the government. In September, TNB estimated that it would absorb between RM120 million and RM150 million in extra costs under the scheme.
Asked whether the limit could be raised to 1,000kWh a month, Fadillah said the government welcomed such proposals, but they would first need to be studied for their cost, the funding needed, the number of households that would benefit and how effective they would be.
He said the ministry was working with the Energy Commission, TNB and the Single Buyer, which buys electricity from power producers, to review the automatic fuel adjustment mechanism for next year. The review will look at electricity use and fuel costs, and at ways to share extra generation costs more fairly among groups of consumers, including through a “causer pays” principle.
Any decision on extending the relief beyond December will be made only after the review is completed, he said.
Unless the relief is extended, the exemptions end on Dec 31. The government also said this week that it had set aside RM15 million a month to keep bottled cooking oil prices capped.