Are we paying more for electricity due to bi-monthly billing?

Is Tenaga Nasional Berhad charging domestic consumers the new electrical tariff which came into effect last year by delaying metre reading?

A Harakahdaily reader has alerted that this could be the case when the national power firm recently started billing consumers every two months instead of monthly.

This, according to reader Mohd Fazli Hasan from Klang, would mean that even consumers who use 300kWh and below per month would not be exempted from the tariff increase.

The new electricity tariff which is an increase of about 7 per cent took effect on June 1, 2011. It was then explained that due to the new tariff calculation being based on usage split into tariff blocks, 75% of consumers nationwide who use 300kWh per month and below will not experience tariff increase.

However, Fazli argues that when TNB calculates for the combined period of two months, the usage increases and as such a consumer can be subjected to the new tariff rates split into usage blocks, as follows:

Usage per month	Rate
1 -200 kWh	21.8 sen/kWh
Next 100 kWh (201 – 300 kWh)	33.4 sen/kWh
Next 100 kWh (301 – 400 kWh)	40.0 sen/kWh
Next 100kWh (401-500 kWh)	40.2 sen/kWh

To take an example, a domestic user who consistently clocks a monthly usage of 200 kWh (RM43.60) pays a total RM87.20 in two months. But when two months' usage (400 kWh) is combined into a single bill, the amount is RM117.00, an increase of about RM30.00. This is based on the following calculation:

(1-200 kWh) X 21.8 sen = RM43.60

(201–300 kWh) X 33.4 sen = RM33.40

(301 – 400 kWh) X 40 sen = RM40.00

Total: RM117

"In summary, TNB has succeeded in implementing the new electrical tariff on users..." Fazli wrote.