DAP welcomes the RM70 million Tenaga Nasional ten per cent rebate to 4.2 million users affected by the August 3 nation-wide power blackout.
The ten per cent rebate for one month’s electricity supply is quite puny but is an appropriate goodwill gesture admitting Tenaga Nasional responsibility - social if not in the strict legal sense - for the August 3 blackout, and should be a precedent not only for Tenaga Nasional but also other privatised agencies.
Tenaga Nasional should also accept similar responsibility for the 10-day power blackout on the Penang Island in June last year - and the DAP proposes that Tenaga Nasional should make an additional ex gratia payment of one full month’s rebate for Penang Island users for the 10-day island-wide power blackout.
Penang industries and consumers suffered heavier losses in the 10-day power blackout last year than in the August 3 17-hour nation-wide power blackout. The Penang Chinese Chamber of Commerce has said that a survey of its 2,813 members found the losses incurred during the Penang Island blackout last year was close to RM1 billion.
The Penang State Government should make a better representation to the Cabinet of the case of the Penang Island users for proper ex gratia payment by Tenaga Nasional for last year’s Penang blackout, and the Penang Chief Minister, Tan Sri Dr. Tan Koon Khoon should lead a delegation of State Exco members to meet the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, if necessary.
The payment in the form of a rebate of a full one month would not be adequate to compensate Penang industries, businesses and users for the actual losses that they incurred, but it would be an appropriate goodwill gesture as in the case of the RM70 million 10 per cent rebate for the nation-wide August 3 blackout.
Meanwhile, the Minister for Energy, Telecommunications and Posts, Datuk Leo Moggie should introduce in the current meeting of Parliament a Bill to amend the Electricity Supply Act to remove the anti-consumer provisions which allow Tenaga Nasional to escape legal responsibility for the losses it had caused to the users as a result of its negligence, carelessness or mismanagement.
The Deputy Minister for Energy, Telecommunications and Posts, Datuk Chan Kong Choy told Parliament on Monday that the consultant, the National Grid Group of United Kingdom, which had been appointed by the government to investigate into the August 3 blackout and the entire power supply and distribution system, had presented an interim report to the Government on 20th September 1996.
This interim report should be tabled in Parliament for public study as well as to create a higher standard of accountability for both the government and Tenaga Nasional on the national energy situation.
(17/10/96)