Gas Malaysia raises natural gas prices

KUALA LUMPUR: Gas Malaysia Bhd has revised up the natural gas tariff for Peninsular Malaysia’s non-power sector to an average base tariff of RM28.05 per MMBtu (one million British thermal units).

However, a government subsidy will lead to lower effective tariff rates for all tariff categories for the period from July 1 to Dec 31, 2017, compared with the existing rates.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, the gas distributor said  the Government, through the Energy Commission, had approved on Friday for Gas Malaysia to effect the revision for the six-month period.

The Government has prescribed the incentive based regulation (IBR) framework, which sets the base tariffs for a period of three years from January 2017 and allows changes in the gas costs to be passed through via the Gas Cost Pass Through (GCPT) mechanism every six months.

Under the GCPT mechanism, a rebate of RM1.59/MMBtu will apply to all tariff categories from July to December 2017 (the rebate was 40 sen per MMBtu in the Jan-June 2017 period).

This means the average effective tariff is RM26.46/MMBtu, an increase of 0.57% from the previous average effective tariff of RM26.31/MMBtu.

Below are  the revised effective tariff after GCPT:

Residential consumers will pay RM18.64 per MMBtu (existing tariff: RM19.26).

Non-residential customers that consume up to 600 MMBtu annually will pay a tariff rate of RM24.52 per MMBtu (currently RM24.86) while those with 601-5,000 MMBtu consumption will have to fork out RM24.66 per MMBtu (RM24.99).

For 5,001-50,000 MMBtu, the new tariff after rebate is RM24.92 per MMBtu (current tariff: RM25.24); and for those consuming 50,001-200,000 MMBtu as well as 200,001-750,000 MMBtu annually, the rate is RM26.07 per MMBtu (RM26.33).

Those with annual consumption above 750,000 MMBtu, the revised effective tariff after GCPT is RM26.99 per MMBtu (existing tariff: RM27.21).

“While the tariff revision has no material impact on Gas Malaysia’s business operations, it is expected to contribute positively towards the financial position of the company for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2017,” Gas Malaysia said.