SHAH ALAM: There is a pressing need to review the water tariff if almost all companies managing the water supply are operating at a loss, says Selangor state executive councillor Izham Hashim.
Izham, who is in charge of the infrastructure and agriculture portfolio, said the current tariff of water was still too low while the capital expenditure was quite high.
“The water tariff has not been reviewed for more than 20 years. Actually, almost all water management companies are operating at a loss,” he told Bernama, adding that reviews of the electricity tariff are “quite frequent.”
On Nov 9, Natural Resources and Environment Sustainability Minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad told the Dewan Rakyat that state governments had agreed during a National Water Council meeting that water tariffs be reviewed and that a new tariff-setting mechanism be set up to regulate the rate of hikes by operating companies.
Izham said that so far, the Selangor government had implemented several initiatives to increase the profits of companies managing water, including constructing new water treatment plants and replacing outdated pipes to reduce water leakage.
He gave a commitment that recipients of the Darul Ehsan Water Scheme free water programme comprising the B40 group in the state would not be affected.
“The recipients will not be affected by this (increase in) tariff. Those involved are only commercial and domestic users who use more than 20 cubic metres of water,” he said.
He said to date, almost 400,000 Selangor residents from the B40 group were qualified to register for the programme, urging them to go https://ssipr.selangor.gov.my/ for more information.
Aimed at reducing the cost of living, especially for the low-income group, the programme provides free water for Selangor residents with a household income of RM5,000 or less.
