MCA man urges higher electricity bill protection threshold

MCA vice-president Lawrence Low has called on the Malaysian government to consider increasing the electricity bill protection threshold beyond the current 800 kWh per month. Low argued that while raising the threshold to 800 kWh offers immediate relief to households, it may lead to abrupt spikes in bills once consumption surpasses the limit.

He suggested implementing a progressive mechanism to gradually protect households from sudden bill increases as consumption rises. Low emphasized that managing electricity costs should not encourage wasteful consumption, but instead, it should enable households to invest in energy-efficient appliances and technologies, benefiting various sectors of the economy.

The government recently announced that the electricity bill protection threshold would be raised from 600 kWh to 800 kWh for domestic consumers until the end of the year. This decision was aimed at providing relief during a period of increased electricity usage due to the haze and hot weather. Low urged the government to review the 8% sales and service tax (SST) on household electricity and lower it to 6% or lower.

He also suggested revisiting the current Regulatory Period 4 (RP4) base tariff of 45.40 sen/kWh and considering a reduction towards the 39.95 sen/kWh rate.