Electricity bill subsidies cost the government RM10.76 billion for the first half of 2023

KUALA LUMPUR: The government allocates RM10.76 billion for the period from Jan 1 to Jun 30, 2023 (H1 2023) to cover electricity bill subsidies for household and non-household customers in the Low Voltage (LV) category.

Minister for Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change, Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad (Picture).

“This means that 9.5 million electricity consumers, representing 99 percent of all users in Peninsular Malaysia, will not be affected by the increase in fuel costs for power generation,” he said at the Dewan Rakyat, closing the debate on the Supply Bill 2023 . Today.

Previously, Nik Nazmi said the electricity tariff is reviewed every six months through the Imbalance Cost Pass-Through (ICPT) mechanism, taking into account fuel costs and other generation costs for the previous six months.

He said in this matter, the cost of ICPT for the period from July to December 2022 is RM16.16 billion, which is a surcharge of 27 Sen/kWh to be imposed on all users for the period from January to June 2023 should.

However, he said the government has agreed to pass on only a surcharge of 20 Sen/kWh to industrial and commercial users (high-voltage – HV and medium-voltage – MV) for the period from January 1 to June 30, 2023, and the remaining surcharge of 7 Sen/kWh, equivalent to RM1.93 billion, would be provided by the government.

“If the government wants to keep the surcharge of 3.7 Sen/kWh for industrial and commercial users of MV and HV, an additional cost of RM4.2 billion in the form of subsidies for the same period has to be borne by the government. ” he said. -Bernama