The announcement of increase in the rate of electric meter charges is an unwelcome issue. The announcement released on 30th August by the Ministry of Electric Power will come into effect commencing from 1st September. According to the announcement, the meter charges will double for both home use and commercial use.
To the surprise of everybody, this announcement was issued amidst problems of power failure and irregular power supply. Worse still, increase in power charges coincides with the ský high prices of commodities.
“We are already in big trouble because of price hike, and now, they’ve decided to raise the rate of power charges. I can’t imagine how they could have reached such a decision,” said a resident of Shwepyitha township to Popular News.
With the regime change, those involved in terrorism activities started to commit disruptive activities one of which is destroying of power generation and supply facilities.
The decision is said to be made at the Union Government Meeting 5/2024 held on 5th July. According to the Ministry of Electric Power, the raise in power charges is in conformity with Section 41 of the Electricity Law 2014.
Realizing the need to generate more electricity to meet the increased demand, the Ministry of Electric Power has been upgrading the power generation and power supply facilities. In so doing, the Ministry is badly in need of a higher revenue to be able to incur the costs of power generation and the expenses of power distribution. This has forced the Ministry to increase the power charges unavoidably.
For non-commercial purposes, Ks 50 will be charged for the units ranging from 1 to 50, Ks 100 for 51 to 100, Ks 150 for 101 to 200, Ks 300 for 201 and above.
For non-household uses like industries, businesses, embassies and International organizations, Ks 250 per unit for units ranging from 1 to 5,000, Ks 400 for units 5,001-20,000 and Ks 500 for units 20,001 units and above.
An entrepreneur from an industrial zone in Yangon told Popular News, “In our opinion, meter charges for non-commercial uses should not be raised for the moment. For us, we have no problem as we are earning income. But for general people, it’s not the right time to increase the meter charges as they will be burdened.”
The power supply is regular in the industrial zones this year. An entrepreneur from the garment sector told the Popular News, “We are OK if we have either electricity or diesel. Without both power supply, we cannot run our business or our factory. When these two supplies are running short at the same time, we’re in great trouble. So, we want the government to provide either electricity or diesel. Without both, we’ve no choice but to temporarily shut down our factory.”
The electricity requirements have been on the increase since 2020, and the current requirements account for 5,443 megawatts daily whereas the power generation is only 2,865.01 megawatts per day. This being so, the Ministry can generate only 50 percent of the daily requirements, according to the Ministry of Electric Power.
