Households will be exempted from paying for the first 150 units of electricity consumed for the month of May, according to Ministry of Electricity and Energy.
This government incentive started in April where households were exempted from paying for the first 150 units of electricity as a form of relief from the economic fallout from COVID-19.
For the month of May, religious organisations, domestic civil society organisations and residential will not have to pay for the first 150 units of electricity consumed, according to the energy ministry.
However, the exemption does not apply to foreign embassies, UN agencies and international organisations.
In April, the ministry faced backlash from the public, which claimed that power bills were raised over the past month.
“The reduction is good, but the bills should tally with the readings on the meter. We had to pay more last month even though there was an exemption,” said U Kyaw Kyaw, who lives in North Dagon township, Yangon.
In response to public criticism, the deputy permanent secretary of the Departmnent of Energy U Soe Myint explained during a press conference that due to a lack of staff members to read the electricity meters, the authorities had resorted to using estimates to calculate the total amount of electricity consumed.
Therefore, in order for the rate of electricity consumption to be exact, the ministry will be charging K120 for each unit above the first 150 units and up to 200, and K125 for units over 200.
“For appliances such as TVs, fan sets, kitchen utensils, the consumption is not more than 150 units. Normal usage will not exceed 150 units of electricity. 150 units would be a good option for the grassroots folk,” a spokesperson from the Yangon Electricity Supply Cooperation said.
Meanwhile, seven new power production projects are currently being completed and expected to be onstream before the end of summer.
A 400 megawatt power plant in Thaketa township had a test run on May 10. The plant is led by a consortium involving Hong Kong-listed VPower Group and China National Technical Import and Export Corp.
“If we cannot produce an additional 1166 megawatts by then, there won’t be sufficient energy to meet demand,” said U Soe Myint
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Source : Myanmar Times
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