Households that use less than 300kW units a month, or are billed below RM77, will not be affected by the increase in tariffs on June 1.

This means 4.4 million or 75 percent of Malaysian households will not be affected by the tariff increase, Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) chief executive officer Che Khalib Mohamad Noh told a press conference in  Kuala Lumpur today.

He said that for low voltage industrial usage below 200 kW per hour or less in monthly electricity consumption, the increase in the electricity bill should be no more than 6.2 percent.

“Stalls, for example, will pay only roughly RM4.60 more. If we divide that by 30 days, it is about 15sen a day,” Che Khalib said.

The new tariff structure was necessary, he added, as the government had directed Petronas to increase its natural gas prices for power producers by RM3 per mmBtu.

This meant that TNB’s gas bill would increase by RM1.5 billion.

Even though the government had allowed TNB to increase its base tariff by 2 percent, Che Khalib said, the company still had to fork out more to sustain its operations.

TNB purchased coal at an average price of US$80 per tonne in the first quarter but spent an average of USD$103.8 per tonne in the second quarter of 2011.

“Coal prices have currently surpassed US$120 per tonne... TNB is not recovering its cost for coal prices at the moment.
 
“In 2004, there was another submission of tariff review to the government, but it was deferred. In 2006, the government approved a 12 percent increase in tariffs.

“In July 2008 the govt implemented 24 percent a tariff adjustment as a result of a 123 percent gas price increase,” he said.

Meanwhile, trading in utilities giant Tenaga Nasional Bhd shares have been suspended with effect from 2.30pm until 5pm today.

The company, in a filing to Bursa Malaysia, said the suspension was in relation to the release of a material announcement.

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