Longhouse folk cry foul over high electricity bills

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KANOWIT: Empawi Geraji from Nanga Ngungun Resettlement Scheme in Sungai Ngemah here was shocked to see his electricity bill for this month amounted to RM405.50.

He said the bill dated Oct 12 indicated that the meter reading was ‘CAP Read’ type for ‘Domestic D’ tariff and the billing period was Sept 27 to Oct 24, 2016.

He said he was puzzled that the bill though dated Oct 12 included meter reading up to Oct 24.

“This means that we are paying in advance for service that we have yet to receive. Another thing is we have to pay GST for consumption above 300kwh.

“I believe this should not happen if we consider that the state government wants to ease the people’s burden by lowering the power tariffs,” he told The Borneo Post recently.

Empawi, 55, from Rumah Austin Kilat said this was the first time he was charged such a whopping amount for electricity as his monthly bill was usually between RM100 and RM150.

“As far as I know, almost every household in this resettlement were charged big amount in their electricity bill this month.

“Even those who previously received subsidy for usage below RM20 were also charged high amount,” he pointed out.

He said it was unusual for longhouse dwellers to have high power consumption considering that almost every household including his family used only basic electrical appliances such as television, refrigerator and table fan.

“I have not seen any household in this resettlement install air-conditioner units so far,” he said.

He added that Sesco should explain to the people in advance if a new meter reading system was used.

Nanga Ngungun has 24 longhouses and a population of about 3,000.

The residents there have been enjoying 24-hour electricity since August last year.

Previously, they received only 12-hour electricity powered by generator sets operated by Sesco before it was extended to 18 hours.

A single mother Rosnah Renggan, 31, said she had used up her 1Malaysia People’s Aid (BR1M) money she received recently to settle her electricity bill totalling RM357.

“That amount can cover my expenses for a month. It is three-fold from the usual amount of my electrical bill.

“Almost everyone from this resettlement lamented about the same thing when I returned from Kanowit town to pay the bill recently,” she said.

She questioned why they received high bills when electricity tariffs had been reduced.

Tuai Rumah Ayong Ujan was also shocked to see his bill reach RM300 this month, which was usually between RM80 and RM90 per month.

“We want Sesco to investigate and explain why the bill is much higher than usual. There must be something that is not right somewhere.

“They cannot do this to rural people. Furthermore, most of us do not have stable income,” he said.