Incoherence In Reducing Cost of Living (Kos Sara Hidup)

 Ini TNB CEO sendiri cakap. Bukan saya cakap. TNB CEO cakap TNB sudah banyak kaya. 

SO WHY DO YOU WANT TO RAISE THE ELECTRICITY TARIFFS?

 

Well the two weeks given to the KSN (in public and so dramatically on 27 Nov) to come up with a comprehensive plan to address the cost of living issues (kos sara hidup) are well and fully up. Where is the comprehensive plan? So far no plan.

Now the latest news is that ALL government departments have been told to come up with their own ideas to reduce the cost of living for the people (kos sara hidup).  

This certainly undermines the task already given to the KSN earlier. It also makes fun of the KSN.   First you tell the KSN to prepare a plan. Then you short circuit him by telling his underlings to also come up with their own plans. 

 

Now the LATEST SUGGESTION or "plan" is to mess with the TNB electricity tariffs. This is going to be a real mess. 

This time the victims shall be the 'orang kaya'. More specifically MNCs or multi-national companies involved in the export markets. They may possibly suffer higher electricity tariffs. 

First of all lets look at TNB, which is certainly a huge, gigantic monopoly in this country. By any measure TNB is a 'syarikat kaya'.  Here is some Press :

 

For the past SIX years TNB has made net profits of billions of Ringgit. RM3.7b in 2021, RM3.6b in 2020, RM4.5b in 2019, RM3.7b in 2018, RM2.6b in 2017 and RM6.9b in 2017. 

This is a monopoly business and every year they make billions in net profit. Why do they need a tariff increase? 

And here is TNB in its own words:

• TNB Shows Resilient 1HFY22 Financial Performance
• 01/09/2022
• TNB reported resilient First Half Financial Year 2022 (1HFY2022) performance 
• on higher electricity demand of 5.0% year-on-year 
• in line with continued post-pandemic economic growth.
• “Group revenue for period increased 4.4% to RM24.99b from RM23.93b said CEO 
• He attributed higher revenue to increase in TNB sales in all sectors
• consistent with overall improvement of Malaysia’s GDP 6.9% year-on-year
• we recorded higher Profit After Tax (3.9 %) of RM 905.6m in 2nd quarter 2022
• compared to RM 871.2m in 1st quarter 2022," added Baharin.

Ini TNB CEO sendiri cakap. Bukan saya cakap. TNB CEO cakap TNB sudah banyak kaya. 

SO WHY DO YOU WANT TO RAISE THE ELECTRICITY TARIFFS?

And why victimise the multi-national companies (MNCs)? If you make their cost of doing business more expensive they will not invest their money in Malaysia. They will go to other countries. Tutup kilang.

Kalau kilang MNC tutup, bebudak kita pula akan menganggur. Bukan beli buah anggur tapi tak ada peluang kerja. Export negara kita akan berkurangan. Maksudnya nilai Ringgit kita akan jatuh lagi.

If the electricity tariff is raised uniformly across the economy no one will complain. But when you target the MNCs specifically the word will spread that Malaysia now discriminates against the MNCs.  Dont mess with the MNCs. They are very powerful and very influential. We are just a kuchi economy. They do not need us. We need them.

I have a suggestion. Instead of increasing the electricity tariffs why not try and reduce the cost of electricity in the country?  

First here is some Climate Change bullshit :

In 2021, the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources of Malaysia (KeTSA) set a target to reach 31% of Renewable Energy (RE) share in the national installed capacity mix by 2025. This target supports Malaysia's global climate commitment to reduce its economy-wide carbon intensity (against GDP) of 45% in 2030 compared to 2005 level.

This is the global warming, climate change bullshit. (Hello folks, even with all the modern technology the weather forecast goes forward five days only. Even that is a good guess. No one can tell you the weather forecast two weeks from now. So how did they forecast the entire climate of the world 50 years from now? Or 100 years from now?)

So based on the climate change hysteria Malaysia wants to achieve 31% Renewable Energy by 2025? 

What does this really mean? It means higher electricity tariffs for Malaysians. It means money. Someone makes money. Usually it is the West. 

And we (the average Malaysian citizen and consumer)  ends up suffering higher electricity tariffs because todate the cost to produce a kilowatt hour (kw/hr) of Renewable Energy (RE) like solar, wind, biomass etc is much higher than electricity generated from fossil fuels (oil, gas, coal). 

'(in 2020), New Zealand proposed multibillion-dollar project that would see them using 100 percent renewable energy within the next decade; and therein lies the problem. Any project that would see a massive shift in energy infrastructure would cost billions of dollars. .. the exorbitant price tag has caused many world leaders ..to reconsider how vested they are in these particular measures."

In Europe for the past couple of decades the comfort of access to cheap gas (especially Russian gas) has further fuelled the renewable energy craze.  Nordstream 1 started pumping cheap Russian gas to Germany in 2011.  

However reality checks like the war in Ukraine have exposed the fallacy of Renewable Energy. It is still too expensive. 

Now it is helter skelter back to fossil fuels. Coal, oil and gas - the cheapest and most abundant sources of energy on earth.

So now in 2022 Australian exports (for example) of coal are going through the roof. Applications to open new coal mines in Australia are also going through the roof. 

 

 

Mega-Polluting Coal Plans Clash With Australia’s Climate Goals
Dozens of new coal projects are being proposed by miners
26 September 2022  
pipeline of coal mine projects in Australia 
Aussie govt considering 29 applications for new mines 
produce more than 250 million tons a year 
contribute 17 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions
more than half of global emissions in 2021

So this is the west.  When it profits them they will say renewable energy. When it profits them they will say fossil fuels.

We are just Third World dunggus, parroting what the west says without thinking. And making our cost of living more expensive.

And here is more incoherence about reducing the cost of living or kos sara hidup. Today the price of RON97 has been cut by 20 sen per liter. But the price of RON95 stays the same. 

 

                                                       RON95                 RON97                     Diesel
Dec 15 – Dec 21, 2022             RM2.05 (RM0)    RM3.55 (‑RM0.20)    RM2.15 (RM0)

 

As you can see RON97 is much more expensive than RON95. RON97 is minyak orang kaya. Why reduce the price of minyak orang kaya but the price of minyak orang biasa (RON 95) remains the same?

And what about reducing motor vehicle prices? Car prices in Malaysia are among the highest in the world. Two, three or four times world market prices. If we reduce our car prices to match world market prices it will make the peoples' lives that much more easier.  Kos sara hidup will go down plenty.

What about the toll road monopolies? If we abolish the tolls or reduce them drastically it will certainly reduce the cost of living. What happened to the old promises to abolish the tolls? Or at least to reduce them substantially? 

FAMA is just one government agency. They do not have enough trucks to transport all the vegetables from Cameron Highlands. For almost 100 years the vegetable farmers and the domestic trucking industry have been growing and transporting the vegetables. They know what to do.  Just leave them alone. Give them space and assistance to grow and harvest more vegetables. That will lower the cost of living as well.  

Jangan pi kacau orang. Jangan menyusahkan manusia.

There does not seem to be much coherence in handling this kos sara hidup gambit.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.