Government-owned power utility giant Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) said today it would submit a revised proposal on its tariff hike soon.

On Saturday, Energy, Water and Communications Minister Lim Keng Yaik said that the cabinet rejected the current proposal by TNB for a 10 percent hike in electricity tariffs.

He added that any increase must take into account the interests of the low-income group and industries that consume a lot of power.

TNB had proposed to exempt those whose bills do not exceed a monthly consumption of 100 kilowatt-hours from the increase. The government wants this to be revised to 200 kilowatt-hours.

Only those who are paying lower than RM21.50 a month in electricity bills would benefit from the non-increase threshold of 100 kilowatt-hours. Meanwhile, any tariff hike after the 200 kilowatt-hours threshold will affect those paying more than RM43 a month.

"In seeking for a tariff review from the government, TNB shares the government stand to ensure that the lower income groups will not be affected," TNB media relations chief Sidek Kamiso told malaysiakini .

However, he said that a hike in electricity tariff was inevitable.

"TNB believes the tariff review is inevitable given the significant rise in the cost of supplying electricity due to higher cost of raw materials such as steel, copper and fuel."

Debts exceeding RM30b

The state-controlled power firm, which has debts exceeding RM30 billion, hasn't increased its power prices in years despite rising operating costs.

It last revised its rates in 1997 when tariffs were increased by 8.3 percent.

The move by the government in asking TNB to revise its proposed tariff increase is aimed to stem further disgruntlement over the 20 percent fuel price hike in recent weeks.

Early this month, the price of petrol and diesel was raised by 30 sen per litre to RM1.92 and RM1.58 respectively in the biggest of four hikes since May 2004.

In less than two years, petrol prices have gone up by 40 percent while diesel by 102 percent.