PUTRAJAYA Sept 16, 2026 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has ordered a special meeting on Thursday to review immediate measures that could ease the impact of higher electricity bills on households that have crossed the government’s subsidised usage threshold.
In a statement issued after returning from official visits to India and the Maldives, Anwar said he had taken note of public complaints and that the issue needed to be handled quickly.
“I hear the complaints that have been raised, and this matter needs to be given attention and addressed immediately,” he said.
He stressed that targeted subsidies remain in place. About 80 percent of domestic users who consume 600 kilowatt-hours (kWh) or less a month continue to be shielded from the Automatic Fuel Adjustment (AFA) surcharge that followed higher fuel costs this year.
The problem, Anwar said, is that haze and hotter weather in recent weeks have pushed some households above that 600 kWh mark. Once usage crosses the line, the AFA surcharge applies to the entire bill, not just the extra units.
The Thursday meeting will involve the Energy Transition and Water Transformation Ministry (PETRA), the Energy Commission, Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) and the Finance Ministry.
Malaysia’s electricity tariff was restructured on 1 July 2025. Under the new system, AFA replaced the older Imbalance Cost Pass-Through (ICPT) mechanism and is revised monthly to reflect fuel costs and exchange rates.
Households using 600 kWh or less a month are exempt from AFA, the 8 percent service tax and the retail charge. TNB has said this group is paying 2 to 14 percent less than under the previous tariff, depending on consumption.
Users who exceed 600 kWh lose those exemptions. Crossing the threshold by even one unit can add tens of ringgit because the surcharge then applies to every kilowatt-hour used that month.
AFA was a rebate for nine consecutive months from August 2025 to April 2026. Surcharges began in May 2026 after generation costs rose following instability in the Middle East. The September 2026 rate is a surcharge of 3.67 sen per kWh. TNB said consumers have received RM3.1 billion in AFA rebates since July 2025, compared with RM800 million in surcharges, and the government has channelled an extra RM435 million through the Electricity Industry Fund to cushion the impact.
TNB has argued that AFA itself does not produce sudden bill spikes and that festive periods, school holidays, work-from-home patterns and weather also change household usage.
Air quality has deteriorated across parts of Malaysia in recent days. On 15 September, 38 areas recorded unhealthy Air Pollutant Index readings, with Serian in Sarawak among the worst-affected. Hotter conditions have also increased demand for air-conditioning.
Anwar said the MADANI government would keep targeted subsidies “fair and reasonable,” with people’s welfare as the priority. No specific new rebate or threshold change has been announced ahead of Thursday’s meeting.
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