PUTRAJAYA must immediately reverse the electricity tariff hike on businesses to help enterprises remain sustainable and lift them out of the current economic turmoil, Lim Guan Eng said.

The DAP secretary-general said that it is crucial to address the immediate concerns of businesses that may adversely impact their company’s profitability and survival.

“The imposition of higher electricity tariffs on businesses through a surcharge and withdrawal of rebates is not helped by a weakening ringgit that increases the price of imports.

“More than 1.6 million commercial and industrial users will be paying up to nearly 20% more for electricity from February 1, leading to increased prices for their goods and services,” he said in a statement today.

On January 30, Small and Medium Enterprises Association of Malaysia (Samenta) said the rise in electricity tariffs for commercial and industrial users will slow down the recovery of businesses that have taken a hit by the Covid-19 epidemic.

It said the hike of 11.8-18.4% would also cause the prices of goods to rise and SMEs would then forced to pass the cost on to customers.

Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob reminded companies and industry players to not raise the prices of goods although their electricity bills will likely increase following the imposition of a surcharge and loss of rebate.

He said the expected hike for commercial entities and industries will not be high enough to justify an increase in prices of goods.

Ismail was commenting on the chance of an increase in the prices of goods after the commercial sector is imposed with a 3.70 sen/kWh surcharge in their electricity bills and loses their 2 sen/kWh rebate.

Lim said that despite greater business activity during the Chinese New Year period, the primary concern is a shortage of workers to cater to the heightened demand.

“The inability to source workers has forced some businesses to ‘rest’ during this normally busy and lucrative period.

“There is also concern on inflation and rising prices of not just food but also basic commodities.”

The Bagan MP also questioned why consumers should pay more just to shore up the profitability of one single company, Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB). 

“Prior to this new tariff hike, TNB had recorded a 9.6% and 4.6% increase in revenue and earnings respectively for the nine months ended September 30, 2021.

“Isn’t that sufficient when many companies are barely surviving? TNB should not be overly protected at the expense of millions of struggling businesses still emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Lim said government red tape, inefficiency and serial policy flip-flopping had caused confusion instead of certainty, disruption instead of reliability and these breed doubt instead of confidence.

“The other concern is growing corruption exemplified by the drastic drop in the 2021 Transparency International Corruption Perception Index to no. 62 from no. 51 in 2019 that will only add on to business costs.”

He added that the government had failed to harness the high-tech benefits of automation, artificial intelligence, internet of things and also 5G.

These, he said, could help get Malaysia up to speed and not fall behind countries like Vietnam or Thailand.

“There is also concern on the government’s failure to respond to its own promise to consider an extension of the bank loan moratorium and interest waiver by another six months to help businesses emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic and economic recession to survive and thrive.”

Lim added that government must keep its promise not to reimpose serial total lockdowns.

He said the lockdowns have been proven to be unsuccessful in eliminating Covid-19 and had caused the country to spiral downwards to a painful recession.

“Will the government act or continue to sleep on their jobs by focusing on their political survival more than the people’s interests?” – February 4, 2022.