Malaysia may allow national power firm Tenaga Nasional Bhd to raise electricity tariffs from next month, Energy Minister Lim Keng Yaik said on Thursday.
Malaysia's cabinet will discuss the proposed rate increase by the middle of this month, he told reporters at his office in the Malaysian administrative capital of Putrajaya. "It's coming very, very soon," Lim said. "It's unavoidable. The tariff has to be restructured. By next month, it should be OK."
State-controlled Tenaga, which produces two-thirds of peninsular Malaysia's power needs and has a distribution monopoly, has warned a tariff increase is vital to ensure its financial future.
In March, the government rejected Tenaga's request for an increase of 10 percent as it had just raised petrol pump prices. Malaysia's second-biggest listed firm, Tenaga has been lobbying for higher tariffs for the past 10 years to help offset rising fuel prices, but the government is reluctant to raise rates when inflation is running at a seven-year high.
Malaysia's Second Finance Minister Nor Mohamed Yakcop said on Tuesday that inflation was cost-pushed and not demand-driven.