The government has decided to retain the rebate for electrical tariff in peninsular Malaysia and a reduction of the tariff in Sabah and Labuan.

Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Maximus Ongkili said the decision would come into effect starting July 1 until Dec 31 this year.

He said with the retention of the rebate, this meant there was no change for electricity users in peninsular Malaysia, Sabah, and Labuan.

“The government has agreed to retain the electrical tariff at 1.52 sen per kilowatt-hour in peninsular Malaysia, and a reduction to 1.20 sen per kilowatt-hour in Sabah and Labuan,” he told a press conference in Putrajaya today.

He said the rebate applied to all categories of electricity users of Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) in peninsular Malaysia and Sebah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) in Sabah.

However, an exception applies for domestic electricity users who use no more than 300 kilowatt-hours, in view of the fact that consumers in this category had not seen an electrical tariff increase since Jan 1, 2014.

Maximus added that the retention of the tariffs costs RM758.03 million, under a tariff review conducted using the Imbalance Cost Pass-Through (ICPT) mechanism.

This is a based on a review of tariffs between Jan 1 and June 30 this year.

He explained that among the factors that contributed to the decision to provide the rebate is the falling liquid natural gas and coal prices on the world market, as well as increased efficiency of coal-fired power plants.