New electricity tariff schedule has not been finalised, says Fadillah

KUALA LUMPUR: The announcement made by Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) about the electricity tariff does not reflect the full decision of the government, says Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof.

“What was announced by TNB does not reflect the full decision of the government because, at that time, the new tariff schedule had not been finalised, even though the average base tariff had already been determined by the government,” said Fadillah.

Fadillah – who is also the Energy Transition and Water Transformation Minister – said this on Wednesday (March 5) in a Parliamentary reply to a question from Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin (PN-Larut).

Hamzah wanted to know whether any action was taken against the board members of TNB for making the announcement regarding the electricity tariff increase.

Fadillah explained the government has a specific mechanism for setting the average base electricity tariff, which has been in place since 2014, based on the Incentive-Based Regulation (IBR) mechanism.

“Through the IBR mechanism, the average base tariff in Peninsular Malaysia for TNB will be reviewed every three years, along with the setting of the fundamental parameters for TNB’s business, which is regulated by the Government through the Energy Commission,” added Fadillah.

He added that on Dec 13, 2024, the government approved the setting of the average base electricity tariff in Peninsular Malaysia for TNB under the IBR mechanism for the Fourth Regulatory Period (RP4), which will commence on Jan 1, 2025, and end on Dec 31, 2027.

“In this regard, the Ministry on Dec 20, 2024, issued a media statement titled ‘Retention of Electricity Tariffs in Peninsular Malaysia: Government to Provide an Electricity Subsidy of RM5.96bil for the period from Jan 1 to June 30, 2025.

“This means that all consumers will continue to pay the same tariff rate as before,” he said.