Review move to raise power tariffs, Rafizi urges Govt

PETALING JAYA: The Government should review its decision to raise electricity tariffs as it could “kill” all the good measures taken by Pakatan Harapan to lower the cost of living, says Rafizi Ramli.

“While I understand the Pakatan Government is trying its best to ease the people’s burden by continuing with the surcharge only for non-domestic users, this matter needs to be refined to avoid the rise in tariffs.

“Although the Goods and Services Tax has been zero-rated, with the rise in electricity tariffs, businesses and industries will use this as an excuse not to lower prices because they want to wait and see before the SST takes effect in September,” the PKR vice-president said in a statement yesterday.

Rafizi was commenting on a report by Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) that non-domestic users would have to pay more for their electricity, with the Imbalance Cost Pass-Through (ICPT) surcharge of 1.35 sen per kilowatt per hour (kWh) due to higher fuel and generation costs.

In its filing to Bursa Malaysia, TNB said domestic customers with a monthly consumption of below 300kWh will not be affected by this ICPT implementation, but for those with a monthly consumption above 300kWh, the ICPT surcharge will be funded by Kumpulan Wang Industri Elektrik.

Rafizi said the move would be counter-productive in trying to get consumer prices down.

“This will erode public confidence in Pakatan’s readiness and sincerity in finding ways to help the people, many of whom had voted to change the Government with the hope to halt unnecessary rise in prices,” he said.

“For this reason, from now until December, it is important to avoid any sort of tariff hike,” he added.