SUBANG JAYA, 4 Dec: Malaysians are ‘affected’ again when the central government, led by Barisan Nasional (BN) took the move to raise electricity tariffs by 15 percent, effective January 1, 2014.
The increase in tariffs is expected to result in communities, especially low and middle income groups, to face two important issues that have an adverse impact in the burden of cost for living.
The Strategy Director of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), Rafizi Ramli, said that apart from having to pay a higher tariff than before, the increase will also cause the price of goods to increase due to the rising cost of production for consumer goods.
“Firstly, the people do not just have to pay higher bills, but the price of goods is expected to increase since this increase has an impact on the production cost for manufacturers and so on.
“Secondly, the people are once again affected because this cost will adversely affect the net income of businesses and this will have an impact of increasing the wage or bonus of employees. ‘Be grateful’ to BN,” he said at a press conference at the Keadlian Executive Training Programme press conference here at the Empire Subang Hotel yesterday.
Rafizi said that the Minister of Energy, Green Technology and Water, Datuk Seri Maximus Ongkili, stated that the increase will not affect consumers using below 300kWh a month and the claim is not relevant because it only involves a handful of people.
He said that the government should work towards controlling corruption, leakages and wastage before burdening the people to save the country’s economy.
“The government should also examine raising taxes on independent power providers every year as they rake in high profits reaching RM1 billion each year.
“If this has already been done and if it is absolutely necessary, then a hike such as this can be implemented,” he said.
Since the 13th General Election, BN has decided to raise the prices of several necessary goods which seriously impact the low and middle income earners.
Among those that have profound impact on the lives of the people is the decision to increase the price of petrol RON95, RON97 and diesel, thus causing the prices of other consumer goods to soar.
