FEA Subsidy

Hasmukh Patel, Fiji Electricity Authority chief executive officer

I refer to a letter titled ‘FEA Subsidy’ published in the Fiji Sun on Wednesday April 27, 2016, under the section ‘Your Views, written by Mr Nirbhay Singh. For your information we have replied to the Consumer Council of Fiji. FEA would like to inform Mr Singh that since the Government subsidy was implemented a few years ago the daily average was in place and explained at the back of the bill. The back of the bill prior to 2016 had the following explanation:

Domestic Tariff Cents per unit. Less than or equal to 85 kWh per month, i.e. 2.79 units/ day, taking one month to be equal to (365 days/12 months) days which works out to 30.42 days. From January 2016 the new criteria was inserted where consumption must be less than or equal to 95kWh/month and there must be a combined household income of less than or equal to to $30,000/annum. The back of the bill for January 2016 and February 2016 is below:

Domestic Tariff Cents per unit. Less than or equal to 95 kWh per month & combined household income is less than or equal to $30,000 if customer has registered and entitled for new Government subsidy. Towards the end of March 2016 we included the daily average as a few customers with consumption less than or equal to to 95k were still not clear with the daily average concept. The back of the bill was revised towards the end of March 2016 as shown below and will remain as such until there is another change. This clearly explains to the customer the daily average of 3.12 units/day.

Domestic Tariff Cents per unit. Less than or equal to 95 kWh per month, i.e. 3.12 units/ day, taking 1 month to be equal to (365 days/12 months) days which works out to 30.42days with a combined household income less than or equal to $30,000. This only applies if the customer has registered and qualifies for the new Government subsidy.