KUALA LUMPUR: The government has extended the electricity bill discount for domestic users for three more months until December this year.
Energy and Natural Resources Minister Datuk Dr Shamsul Anuar Nasarah yesterday said more than 7.66 million domestic consumers in Peninsular Malaysia would enjoy a discount in their electricity bills of between two and 50 per cent from Oct 1 to Dec 31.
The discount will also benefit domestic consumers in Sabah (520,000 users) and Sarawak (580,000 users), who will enjoy a two per cent discount off their electricity bills until the year-end.
"As a responsible government that is aware of the need to ease the burden of people affected by the Covid-19 outbreak, the government has agreed to extend the current electricity bill discount until Dec 31, 2020, for all domestic users in Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak," he said.
This discount is an extension to the announcement made by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on Feb 27, through the 2020 Stimulus Package, which gave a similar discount from April to September 2020.
Shamsul said this extension also applied to consumers whose usage was between 601kWh and 900kWh, and had received a 10 per cent discount under the Bantuan Prihatin Elektrik announced on June 20.
"The three-month extension on discounts for consumers in Peninsular Malaysia will be funded by the Kumpulan Wang Industri Elektrik with an estimated cost of RM392 million, while discounts for Sabah and Sarawak will be borne by the Finance Ministey with an estimated allocation of RM6 million.
"This brings the total consumption bill discount from April to December 2020 to RM2.62 billion."