Natural gas tariff revision for non-power sector from Jan 1 next year

Gas Malaysia Bhd has received the approval from the government to effect the revision of natural gas tariff for the non-power sector in Peninsular Malaysia from Jan 1 next year to Dec 31, 2019 in line with the Incentive Based Regulation (IBR) framework.

In a filing to Bursa Malaysia today, the company said the IBR framework set the base tariff for a regulatory period of three years from January next year and allowed changes in gas costs to be passed through via Gas Cost Pass Through (GCPT) mechanism every six months.

In 2017, the average base tariff is approved at RM26.71 MMBtu (one million British Thermal Units) for the first half, followed by RM28.05 MMBtu in the second half, and subsequently RM30.90 and RM31.92 MMBtu in the first and second half of 2018, respectively.

In 2019, the approved average base tariff is at RM32.69 MMBtu for the first six months and RM32.74 in the next six months.

Gas Malaysia said under the GCPT mechanism, a tariff rebate of RM0.40 per MMBtu would apply to all tariff categories for the January to June 2017 period.

"This translates to an average effective tariff of RM26.31 per MMBtu, which is a reduction of 2.74 per cent from the previous average tariff," it said.

It added that the base tariffs for the regulatory period were expected to contribute positively towards the financial position of the company for the next three financial years.