From January to March 2019, consumers can expect lower electricity and gas tariffs due to lower cost of natural gas for electricity generation and a drop in fuel prices from the quarter before.
Energy utilities provider SP Group announced on Sunday (30 Dec) that the electricity tariffs will drop by an average of 1.2 per cent, or 0.28 cent, per kilowatt hour (kWh), from tomorrow to 31 March, compared to the previous quarter.
The company said that households’ electricity tariff will decrease from 24.13 cents to 23.85 cents per kWh for the quarter. This means that the average monthly electricity bill for four-room Housing Board flats will fall by S$ 1 a month, excluding goods and service tax (GST).
The electricity tariff comprises of four components – energy costs, network costs, a market support services fee, as well as a market administration and power system operation fee.
This marks the first drop in electricity tariff after rising for five consecutive quarters since October 2017.
Generally, the electricity tariffs are reviewed quarterly, following the guidelines set by the Energy Market Authority (EMA), the electricity and gas industry regulator.
In a separate news release, City Gas, a trustee of City Gas Trust, also announced yesterday that gas tariffs will reduce in the first quarter of 2019 by 0.81 per cent or 0.16 cent per kWh, from 19.67 cents per kWh to 19.51 cents per kWh. This is because the fuel prices went lower as compared with the previous quarter.
“City Gas reviews the gas tariffs based on guidelines set by Energy Market Authority (EMA), the gas industry regulator,” the release said.
Although this is a good news for Singaporeans, but many netizens are voicing their dissatisfaction and saying that the decrease is minimum compared to how much the oil prices has reduced. In an article CNBC, the US crude oil prices plunges 22% in November, settling at US$50.59 and it’s at the weakest month in the last 10 years.
Meanwhile, other Facebook users are skeptical on this reduction as they’re afraid that other things will increase in price in the near future.
