Electricity bill discount from April to Sept to help rakyat face Covid-19

Malaysians will receive a discount on their electricity bill from next month to September as part of efforts to help them weather the Covid-19 pandemic.

Those living in Peninsula Malaysia and Sabah will also avoid incurring any cut to their electricity supply over non-payment of electrical bills during the Covid-19 related movement control order period from March 18 until March 31.

These were announced by Energy and Natural Resources Minister Shamsul Anuar Nasarah (photo) in two media statements issued today.

He said the discounts will run from April 1 to Sept 30 as part of efforts to lessen the burden of Malaysians facing challenging economic conditions following the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The giving of this discount was announced in stages such as during the announcement of the Economic Stimulus Package 2020 on Feb 27, and also through an announcement by the prime minister after the Economic Action Council’s first meeting on March 16,” he said.

Shamsul said domestic or residential users will enjoy a two percent discount on electricity use from April 1 to Sept 30.

He noted that this was on top of the six percent discount already reaped by domestic users from Jan 1 to June 30 this year.

“This is expected to give estimated electricity bill savings of RM92 million to about 7.5 million TNB accounts over six months. For Sabah, it would benefit 520,378 domestic users with a discount cost of RM5.7 million, while in Sarawak it would benefit 585,637 domestic users with the discount costing an estimated RM6.8 million.

“I am happy to announce that the electricity bill discount cost is borne by the government through the Electricity Industry Fund for Peninsula Malaysia. For Sabah and Sarawak, the discount cost is borne by the federal government,” Shamsul said.

The minister said the government has agreed to grant a 15 percent discount in electricity use from April 1 to Sept 30 for six select business sectors directly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, namely hotels, travel and tourism, shopping complexes, convention centres, theme parks, and local airline company offices.

He said that the discount would affect 10,000 accounts from these six business sectors and is expected to have the impact over six months of cutting the electricity bill by RM40 million for Peninsula Malaysia, RM20 million for Sabah and RM8.5 million for Sarawak.

He noted that commercial, industrial and agricultural users from six select sectors will reap a two percent discount in electricity use from April 1 to Sept 30.

He explained that this would benefit around 1.6 million TNB accounts via electricity bill savings around RM370 million over six months.

Shamsul said that in Sabah, 99,322 such accounts will benefit from cost savings of RM11.5 million while in Sarawak, 100,000 such accounts will reap RM107.2 million in cost savings.

Concerning the no electricity supply cut, Shamsul said TNB and Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd will not cut any electricity supply to users who are late in paying their electricity bill during the two-week movement control order period. - Mkini