KUCHING, March 7: The Sarawak government has been urged to make public how much Sarawak Energy Berhad (Sarawak Energy) is selling power for to large consumers of electricity, especially for the recent deal with Malaysia LNG Sdn Bhd (MLNG).
Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) Southern Zone Political Affairs director Raymand Thong made the call in a statement today, saying that the people including commercial and local industries, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) need to also benefit from the state’s rich natural resources.
Quoting Sarawak Energy Berhad chairman Datuk Amar Abdul Hamed Sepawi’s statement on March 4, 2021 that the state’s abundant resources is the key to competitively priced electricity for its customers, Thong said the state government should be looking into long-term plans for other stakeholders in the state to gain from it too.
“While we understand the state needs to sell our energy at competitive prices to attract foreign investors to set up their industries (sic) here, we also want the people, commercial and local industries to benefit from it.
“The people are stakeholders to (sic) these resources, and the government is only a custodian, not the owner,” he said.
Thong noted there was a huge difference between electricity prices for Sarawak Energy’s clients and those for the public.
In 2014, he said, Sarawak Energy sold 140MW of power supply to Tokuyama Corporation at RM0.115 per kWH and in 2019, 600MW of electricity was sold to Press Metal at RM0.105 per kWH.
At the same time, electricity supply to Sarawakians was priced at RM0.30 per kWH, which was more than 270 per cent higher than the price offered to Tokuyama and Press Metal.
“If the state government can sell the electricity to these companies at such low price and still make a good profit, surely, they can sell to the people at a much lower price than what they sell to the people now.
“We hope the state government can be transparent and reveal to the people what is the current price SEB (Sarawak Energy) is selling to Tokuyama, Press Metal, MLNG and other foreign companies which need big electricity supply.
“There is no better time than now to review and reduce the price of electricity to (sic) the people, commercial and local SMEs when they are so badly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. This will help to reduce the expenses for them,” he added. — DayakDaily
