by Teo Nie Ching
Senior director of Energy Commission Azhar Omar revealed at a public forum entitled “Reforms in Peninsular Malaysia’s Electricity Sector” on November 7, 2013 that a hike in electricity tariffs is imminent due to unsustainable subsidies for the power industry, along with worldwide price increases in oil, gas and coal.
Hence, I urge the Government to confirm the accuracy of his statement – whether or not the Government will reduce the subsidies for natural gas in the near future.
If the subsidies reducing policy is imminent, it is proven that the so-called Barisan Nasional Government is nevertheless a “Barang Naik” Government.
Since the 2013 General Elections, the BN Government had increased the price of fuel and sugar. The price of RON95 petrol and diesel were increased by 20 sen per litre effective September 3, 2013 whereby the price of sugar was increased by 0.34 sen effective October 26, 2013, day after Najib Razak tabled the 2014 Budget. If the price hiking of the electricity tariff is true, the people’s livelihood will be overly burdened by such increase.
However, even if the BN Government does not increase the price of the electricity in the next 18 months, its price will still be affected on April 1, 2015, after the implementation of the 6% Goods and Services Tax (GST).
In Najib’s 2014 Budget, he mentioned that the GST will not be imposed on the first 200 units of electricity per month for domestic consumers. In other words, those households whose electricity bill is more than RM43.60 cannot avoid paying the said Tax from April 1, 2015 onwards.
The hiking of electricity tariffs is also the same goes to the industrial and commercial consumers and inevitably it will cause inflation. Most of the businesses will be affected even if their annual sales are less than RM500,000, including mamak stalls and night markets.
On the other hand, the Health Minister, Dr S Subramaniam said that the implementation of the GST will not impact on the healthcare costs. However he is either incompetent in understanding the GST or being denial on the facts that the hiking of the electricity tariffs will certainly affect the healthcare costs, both in governmental and private hospitals. How would the hospital management decide to absorb such a cost?
Apart from that, the government-aided schools will be the victims as well. To date, the BN Government only subsidises RM2,000 for the utility bill of these schools. If the Ministry of Education does not review its policy by April 1, 2015, it will also affect the government-aided schools especially those having excessive amount of students.
So, if there is a cut on the natural gas subsidies and thus increasing the electricity tariffs affecting various fields such as healthcare and education, it is unquestionable that the BN Government is no more but a “Barang Naik” Government.
