‘TNB failed in Sabah’

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah consumer and social activist, Patrick Sindu, has suggested that the Sabah government retake power utility, Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB), that they surrendered to Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) two decades ago.

The u-turn, he said, was necessary to help resolve the unabated energy power problems in Sabah.

“In the beginning when TNB took over SESB 20 years ago, the reason given was to help the Sabah government solve its energy problems.

“Now the power problem in Sabah has become worse, so it is much better for the Sabah government to take back SESB and solve the problem,” he told FMT in an immediate reaction to the federal government’s announcement to increase power tariff from next month.

“Look at our neighbour Sarawak; they still manage their own power (production) and they have less problems than Sabah, so it would be better for us to manage our own power utility like Sarawak,” Sindu said.

Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister, Maximus Ongkili on Monday announced in Kuala Lumpur that effective Jan 1, the power tariff would be raised five sen or 16.9% per kilowatt/hour (kWh) for Sabah and Labuan in a bid to close the increasing gap of SESB’s power generation cost and its present tariff rates.

In real terms, this will see electricity tariff in Sabah and Labuan raised from 29.52 sen per kW/h to 34.52 sen per kW/h.

However, the increase would only be felt by those consuming more than 300 kW/h or those with a monthly bill of over RM69, Ongkili had said.

About 260,000 of the 420,000 SESB’s consumers in Sabah and Labuan would not be affected by the new tariff, he said.