PETALING JAYA: DAP’s Lim Guan Eng has questioned why consumers, especially businesses, should churn out more to increase the profits of a sole company, following the recent electricity tariffs hike for commercial and industrial users.
He said that before the increase, Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) had recorded a 9.6 % and 4.6% increase in revenue and earnings respectively, for the nine months ending on Sept 30, 2021.
“Isn’t that sufficient when many companies are barely surviving? TNB should not be overly protected at the expense of millions of struggling businesses still emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic,” the party secretary-general said in a statement today.
Lim urged the government to reverse the tariff hike to help businesses address their six immediate concerns.
One of the concerns, he said, was the shortage of workers in the various sectors and another was that with more than 1.6 million commercial and industrial users paying up to nearly 20% more for electricity from Feb 1, the prices of goods and services will increase.
He also said the government had failed to respond to its own promise to consider an extension of the bank loan moratorium and interest waiver by another six months.
“Will the government act or continue to sleep on the job by focusing on its political survival more than the people’s interests?” he said.
Many groups, including the Small and Medium Enterprises Association of Malaysia and the Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations (Fomca), have also criticised the increase in electricity tariffs.
The Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) also said it was disappointed that it was not consulted on this matter.
According to Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, the rate hike came from the removal of rebates and the imposition of a surcharge on commercial users. He stressed that domestic users had been spared the increase. - FMT
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.