Gulam slams ‘soaring’ electricity bills, questions TNB’s rising profits

KUALA LUMPUR: UMNO Batu division chief Datuk Gulam Muszaffar Gulam Mustakim has criticised the “soaring” electricity bills faced by consumers, questioning whether Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) is taking advantage of its position as the country’s sole electricity provider.

Gulam said social media platforms such as Threads, Facebook and TikTok were filled with complaints from Malaysians claiming their electricity bills had increased sharply over the past two to three months.

He said explanations about the Automatic Fuel Adjustment (AFA) mechanism would mean little to consumers who were primarily concerned about why their household electricity bills had suddenly risen.

“Do you think the rakyat care about and understand this AFA method? What they care about is why their household electricity bills have soared over the past two to three months,” he said in a statement.

Gulam also questioned what had happened to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s engagement with independent power producers (IPPs), referring to a video clip of Anwar from his time as opposition leader.

He said Anwar had previously claimed that the country’s electricity-related problems could be resolved within two weeks, but almost four years into his premiership, consumers were instead facing higher electricity costs.

Gulam also highlighted TNB’s reported net profits of RM2.77 billion in 2023, RM3.98 billion in 2024 and RM4.77 billion in 2025, claiming the company’s projected earnings for 2026 were expected to be higher.

“These are profits derived from the sweat and toil of Malaysians,” he said, questioning whether TNB had become “draconian” and was exploiting consumers because it was the country’s sole electricity provider.

Gulam also took aim at the broader increase in living costs, citing higher petrol and diesel prices, the sales and service tax (SST), rising prices of goods and electricity tariffs.

“Petrol is up, diesel is up, SST is up, prices of goods are up, electricity is up — everything is going up,” he said.

He sarcastically suggested that the next explanation from government supporters could be for Malaysians to practise greater frugality by avoiding the use of air conditioners and refrigerators because they were supposedly not necessities.

Gulam accompanied his statement with an old video clip of Anwar and urged the public to view it.