KUCHING, June 23: Sarawak should be enjoying an additional 10 per cent discount on electricity bills provided by the federal government on top of the 23 per cent from the state government to be fair.
Highlighting this, Bandar Kuching MP Kelvin Yii thus urged both federal and state governments to extend such incentives and rebates to both Sabah and Sarawak so that all Malaysians regardless of demography will not be left out from such benefit.
“While indeed Sarawak’s does have the lowest electricity tariffs in the country, it does not mean that our people are not also heavily burdened by the high electricity bills especially when we are all feeling the economic impact from Movement Control Order (MCO).
“Fact is, we will also see soaring electricity bills during the MCO period as most people were confined to their homes,” he said in a statement today.
In view of this, Yii emphasised that it was only fair if the federal government engaged with local state-owned utility companies such as Sarawak Energy Berhad to also extend such financial aid to Sarawak as well, so Sarawakians can enjoy the additional discount for electricity bills and not limited to those in Peninsula Malaysia.
In Sarawak, he noted that Sarawak Energy provided a 23 per cent discount which was on top of the two per cent the federal government announced under the Prihatin economic stimulus package.
He added that the Energy and Natural Resources Minister Shamsul Anuar Nasarah had announced that the federal government provided an additional RM942 million in discounts for domestic users which included free electricity from April until June if consumptions were under 300kWh or RM77.
“So, this means that the initial two per cent have been pushed up to about 10 per cent by the federal government but is only limited to those in Peninsula Malaysia.
“So technically to be fair, in Sarawak, we should also enjoy the additional rebates 10 per cent from the federal government on top of the 23 per cent from the state government on the electric bill.
“This will allow us Sarawakians to enjoy free electricity if we use below RM77. Now that we only get the 25 per cent discount, but do not enjoy free electricity if consumption is under RM77,” he said.
As it was a federal government initiative, Yii reiterated that it should be fair across the board to benefit all Malaysians regardless of demography.
He also noted that the federal government has reported that the additional funds to pay such additional discount was from Kumpulan Wang Industri Elektrik (KWIE).
“Before the change of government, KWIE was estimated to reach an excess of RM1.5 billion for June 2020; RM200 million from their own reserves and an additional RM1.368 billion from an Imbalance-Cost-Pass-Through (ICPT) mechanism and Incentive-Based-Regulation (IBR) that was set by the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government for the period of January to June 2020.
“So, since the additional funds were obtained through good governance measure under the PH federal government, it should be shared among all Malaysians and not just limited to those in Peninsula Malaysia as we are all affected by high electric bills,” he added. —DayakDaily
