KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 26): Malaysia's national electricity utility Tenaga Nasional Bhd (KL:TENAGA) is owed more than RM1 billion in arrears from over 600,000 accounts at the end of September which have been disconnected.

That’s a sharp increase from 2023, when 464,076 accounts were disconnected over RM945 million in arrears. In terms of states, the five with the highest arrears are Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Perak, Johor, and Terengganu.

"Possible reasons for late payments by consumers include financial constraints, irresponsibility, carelessness, and the attitude of 'paying TNB last',” according to Deputy Minister of Energy Transition and Water Transformation Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir.

Akmal was addressing the Dewan Rakyat on Tuesday during an oral question-and-answer session.

Tenaga currently serves a total of 10.4 million consumers, comprising 8.5 million domestic and 1.9 million non-domestic consumers, including commercial, industrial, agricultural, and other categories.

The company can take action against consumers who fail to make timely payments under the Electricity Supply Act 1990 and the Licensee Supply Regulations 1990. The company may disconnect electricity supply after issuing a seven-day notice to consumers who fail to pay within 30 days.

However, Tenaga often adopts a discussion-based approach to avoid disconnection as they have discretion in such cases, Akmal noted. "This is why consumers sometimes accumulate substantial arrears on their electricity bills,” he said.

Akmal, however, added that the utility will take stricter action against non-domestic consumers as arrears in such cases often involve business operations.

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