KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 23): Tenaga Nasional Bhd (KL:TENAGA) said the extra subsidy earmarked for households is a one-off measure, and the national electric utility is mulling tweaks to its charges to better shield consumers.
The initial estimate of up to RM150 million in costs to subsidise consumers from rising electricity bills is conservative and the actual cost may be lower for the company, according to several analysts that attended an investor briefing by Tenaga Nasional on Tuesday.
Tenaga Nasional stressed that “this is a one-off corporate contribution outside the regulatory framework, rather than a change to the revenue-cap or price-cap mechanism”, BIMB Securities said in a post-briefing note.
The briefing follows a decline in Tenaga Nasional’s share price as investors priced in earnings impact after the company agreed to absorb the impact from the electricity tariff fuel surcharge exemption that has been expanded to more households up until the end of this year.
Consumers are seeing relatively higher electricity bills from soaring temperatures and work-from-home policy and other seasonal factors.
Last week, the government announced that households consuming 800 kilowatt-hour of power or less monthly will now be spared from surcharges under the automatic fuel adjustment. The exemption is previously provided only to those using under 600 kilowatt-hour each month.
More importantly, Tenaga Nasional and the government are working on a more permanent solution for 2027 onwards to address elevated fuel price, CIMB Securities said.
One possible approach could be differentiated rates versus the current uniform rate, and similar to how the imbalance cost pass-through, or ICPT, was previously implemented with residential users paying a lower rate against large-scale commercial users, the house noted.
While there is no clarity on the new structure, the previous framework under ICPT mechanism allowed “cross subsidisation and potentially greater protection” for residential consumers and even small and medium enterprises, TA Securities added.
Under the previous mechanism that was replaced in June 2025 with the automatic fuel adjustment system, the final tariff to be paid by consumers was adjusted every six months in the form of rebates or surcharges on top of the base tariff.