Myanmar raises electricity charge prices

Myanmar has raised the electricity charge prices beginning this month, advising the country's people to use electricity more efficiently and keep away from overuse of it, according to a latest notification of the state-run electricity supplier.

Electricity prices have gone up to 25 Kyats (0.02 U.S. dollar) per unit to be charged uniformly from previous prices which differed from 2.5 Kyats to 25 Kyats per 1 to 200 units, the notification issued by the Myanmar Electric Power Enterprise said.

The old system of collecting electricity charge had remained in force for seven years since May 1999 until April 2006.

The present readjustment of the electricity prices marked the end of government's subsidy for civil servants, pensioners and religious buildings ever since, observers said.

Electricity consumers viewed that the new prices were introduced in line with the sharp increase of salaries of government employees since April.

Government officials attributed the change of rate in collecting electricity charge to the adoption of the market- oriented economy which was introduced since 1989.

Meanwhile, Myanmar is implementing 15 major hydropower plant projects to generate 10,000 more megawatts (mw) in a bid to fulfill its domestic power demand and bring about socio-economic progress. They include Tasang (7,110 mw), Shweli (400 mw), Yeywa ( 780 mw) and Htamanthi (1,200 mw) among others.

With some 12 of them with a capacity of over 2,000 mw to be prospectively yielding in the next three years, it will potentially triple the amount of electricity available on the national power grid, experts said.

Myanmar had built 30 hydropower plants and nine other gas ones since 1988.

According to official statistics, Myanmar has a total of over 1, 335 mw of installed generating capacity of electric power as of the end of March 2005, up from 706.82 mw in 1988. The hydropower ones account for 35 percent, while the gas-fired ones take 50 percent of the country's total capacity.

Myanmar's electric power generation has grown to 5.4 billion kilowatt-hours (kwh) in 2004-05 from 2.2 billion units in 1988, the figures also show.

Source: Xinhua