KUALA LUMPUR: Small and Medium Enterprises Association of Malaysia (Samenta) welcomes the Energy Commission's (ST) announcement on the unchanged electricity tariff adjustment for the Jan 1 to June 30, 2024 period.
However, Samenta national president Datuk William Ng said the industry players remain concerned with the uncertainty posed by the Imbalance Cost Pass-Through (ICPT) mechanism.
"The energy costs remain a major concern for small and medium enterprises, and while we support the energy transition roadmap, we must be careful that any incremental costs are gradual and supportive of growth," he told Bernama.
ICPT refers to a mechanism under the Incentive-Based Regulation (IBR), which allows fuel costs to be adjusted every six months based on fluctuations in global fuel prices.
Ng added that the ICPT was meant to be a temporary measure to address a spike in operational cost, not as a mechanism to guarantee the national energy company's profitability.
According to the Energy Commission, non-domestic users under the commercial and industrial low-voltage tariff category (tariff B and D), specific agricultural tariffs (tariff H, H1 and H2), and water and sanitation operators will not experience an increase in electricity tariff, with the ICPT surcharge maintained at 3.7 sen/kWh.
"For other non-domestic consumers, the surcharge remains at 17 sen/kWh," it said.
The Energy Commission said the government had allocated RM1.9 billion in subsidies for all categories of consumers involved to minimise the impact of the ICPT surcharge throughout the implementation period. --BERNAMA