Just like many Malaysians in these extraordinary times, you probably found yourself working from home for months or just spending all your waking hours at home, instead of heading outdoors for recreation and social activities.
This also means you have been keeping the lights, fans and for those fortunate enough, air conditioning on a lot longer than usual.
Worried about how all the extra usage will lead to higher electricity bills?
Fortunately, Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) has a number of measures to help Malaysians cope with this sudden increase in home power usage.
Rebates and discounts for 2021
Under the PERMAI (Perlindungan Ekonomi dan Rakyat Malaysia) and PEMERKASA (Program Strategik Memperkasa Rakyat dan Ekonomi) assistance package, both residential and business customers can benefit from electricity rebates and discounts in 2021.
What are the rebates/discounts you can expect?
- 2 sen per kilowatt-hour ICPT rebate for all TNB customers. Due to lower fuel cost prices, customers will enjoy an imbalance cost pass-through (ICPT) rebate of 2 sen per kilowatt-hour for their total monthly electricity usage. This means you can enjoy a discount of up to nine percent on your monthly bill. The ICPT rebates are given for a 6-month period from January 1 to June 30, 2021.
- Extension of 10 percent discount for six business sectors. Hotel operators, theme parks, convention centres, shopping malls, local airline offices, and travel and tour agencies have benefited from this discount since March 2020. They will continue to enjoy this discount for another 3 months until the end of June 2021.
These discounts are an extension of the discounts offered last year. In 2020, TNB provided a discount of between 10 and 50 percent on all electricity bills between April 1 and September 30, 2020. This was accompanied by the one-off Bantuan Prihatin Elektrik (BPE) given to all residential customers in July 2020 that provided free usage of electricity of up to RM77 per month (for April, May & June 2020) during the implementation of MCO 1.0.
Help with paying your bills
TNB has also introduced initiatives to ease the financial burden of customers during these challenging times.
What type of help is available if you have unpaid bills?
- Pay your bill arrears in instalments. Residential customers with bill arrears of less than 6 months as at 31 December 2020 are automatically eligible for TNB’s Easy Payment Plan scheme where you can opt to pay the Easy Payment Plan amount stated in your bill until 30 June 2021 (refer to the yellow box at the top right-hand corner of your electricity bill).
- Avoid electricity supply cut. Residential customers with unpaid bills will also not be faced with their electricity supply being cut until the end of March 2021. If they need to extend their payment terms further, they can contact TNB CareLine at 1-300-88-5454 or visit the nearest Kedai Tenaga to apply to pay their bill arrears in instalments to avoid power cuts.
Did you know?
As the nation spent the last 12 months combating the COVID-19 pandemic, TNB did everything it could to support the government’s efforts to control the spread of the disease. All at no extra cost to consumers.
The national power provider extended additional electricity and lighting to over 120 temporary control posts throughout peninsula Malaysia to assist security officials in enforcing the MCO. Some of these posts are still operational to ensure that the existing SOPs from the National Security Council are being followed.
A further 79 mobile power stations were also deployed to hospitals and healthcare clinics in rural areas to ensure an uninterrupted power supply during these critical times. Another 425 sets of these mobile stations have been put on standby in the event that they are needed.
You can also do your part to use electricity in a responsible manner and avoid activities that can disrupt power supply to vaccination centres.
Use electricity wisely
TNB is doing what it can to alleviate the economic effects of the prolonged MCO on the people. However, it is also up to you to ensure that you are aware of what kind of benefits are being extended to you; so that you can make the most of them.
In these trying times, it’s important to stretch your ringgit and balance your budget. So, don’t forget those electricity bill discounts won’t last forever. If you need help with paying your electricity bill, don’t forget to contact TNB to request for instalment payments to avoid any disruptions to your power supply.
