35,103 families now benefitting from Government and EFL Electricity Subsidy

Energy Fiji Limited says a total of 35,103 Fijian families are now benefitting from the Government and EFL Electricity Subsidy Scheme as at May this year however National Federation Party Leader Professor Biman Prasad says the Government must direct EFL to suspend all disconnections until 31st December this year.

EFL Chief Executive Officer, Hasmukh Patel says as of 1st April 2020, the Government subsidizes 48% and EFL subsidizes the remaining 52% for the first 100 units of electricity usage per month for all registered domestic subsidy customers.

This is subject to the particular account holder’s combined family household annual income being $30,000 or less, and the account holder registers and qualifies for this Electricity Subsidy.

The customers only have to pay the VAT component and normal domestic tariff rate applies for any additional units consumed over 100 units.

Patel says prior to April 2020 the Government subsidy provided for domestic account holders to save 48% on the first 100 units of electricity usage per month.

EFL says in March 2020, there were 33,665 Fijian families registered for the Government’s Electricity Subsidy Scheme. In April 2020, this grew by 4.27% with an additional 1,438 new households to the list.

Patel says electricity is an essential part of our lives and even in these trying times, EFL teams will ensure that they provide and maintain a power supply that is financially viable, economically sound and consistent with the required standards of safety, security and quality of power supply.

He also stresses that bills should also be settled on time and in full to avoid any inconvenience.

Meanwhile National Federation Party Leader, Professor Biman Prasad says the last thing anyone wants is for a ruthless organisation to take advantage of the pandemic.

He says EFL’s decision to disconnect electricity supply of customers who are unable to pay their electricity bills will strangulate all struggling businesses and many thousands of workers either unemployed or have their salaries and wages depleted due to the devastating effects of COVID-19.

The NFP Leader says the fact that EFL has decided to outline this policy in its latest annual report based on its corporate decision to reduce any impairment or losses to a minimum shows how ruthless this majority owned State enterprise is.

The 2019 EFL annual report states that during this COVID-19 pandemic period, EFL has not experienced any major impairment to customers account as a result of default in the timely repayments of electricity bills. It states that to ensure that the impairment loss to EFL is kept at a minimum, EFL will be disconnecting these customers’ accounts on timely basis and ensure that the customers security deposit maintained by EFL, which is based on two months of electricity usage is sufficient to offset these debts.

The NFP Leader says while temporary relief was provided to the subsidised customers whose family incomes are below $30,000 annually, using up to 100 units of electricity per month in the sense that they have been given one month’s time to pay their bill, the vast majority of the customers don’t have any protection from the wrath of EFL.

Professor Prasad says the Government announced in the COVID-19 Response Budget that the Water Authority of Fiji would suspend disconnection of water meters for non-payment of bills till 31st December, 2020.

He says Government did not make any similar announcement in respect of EFL apart from saying the company had agreed to subsidise the remaining 50% of first 100 units of electricity for those under Government’s Subsidy Scheme.