KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd’s (SESB) assurance that the hike in electricity tariff was only 15 per cent and would not heavily affect common users is not true, said Sabah Democratic Action Party (DAP).
Its youth chief, Junz Wong, said they had recieved numerous complaints from the public who were shocked and unhappy with the “too high” increase in their monthly electricity bills.
“People want to know how they calculate the increase because it does not look like a 15 per cent to them. Families whose monthly bills before were only RM200 said they now had to pay RM300, which is an increase of 50 percent,” he said to reporters yesterday.
Junz, who is also DAP assistant state secretary, said the tariff hike had also resulted in substantial increase in prices of goods and services in the State, causing further burden to business and the people.
“They said regular consumers would not be affected but it certainly does not look like that,” he added.
He said the public were not just asking SESB to explain the calculation method they used in determining the customers’ monthly bills but also urged the government to remedy the suffering caused by the increase.
“The people are not prepared to face this kind of increase. The government should consider reviewing the hike,” he said.
A DAP youth member present at the press conference said his family’s monthly bill was around RM350 before the new rate was introduced but last month they were surprised to find it had increased to RM560.