Wilfred Madius Tangau, the chairman of Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB), has expressed his approval of the Federal Government delegation of power to Sabah over the regulatory control of the state’s electricity supply after the passing of three Bills during the special state assembly sitting on Wednesday (Jan 3).
Tangau mentioned that this development is timely in light of the reforms happening in governance and power decentralization, broadening the autonomy of the Sabah government which previously did not include regulatory authority on power supply. He conveyed his gratitude to the Federal Government for entrusting Sabah with this responsibility and also congratulated the Sabah government for taking on this historic achievement.
He also voiced his hope for expanding the autonomy to include SESB as the utility company supplying electricity to Sabah and Labuan.
The special session unanimously passed the Sabah Energy Commission Enactment 2023 (Amendment 2024) Bill, Electricity Supply Enactment Bill 2024, and Sabah Renewable Energy Enactment Bill 2024. This means Sabah has regained full regulatory authority over its power supply and renewable energy after handing it over to the Federal Government 40 years ago.
However, Tangau noted that SESB still belongs to Tenaga Nasional Berhad, which owns 80% of the shares in the utility company, with Sabah owning most of the remaining shares. He pointed out that the federal Finance Ministry was the “golden shareholder” due to granting RM1bil in the form of Tariff Support Subsidy (TSS) and fuel subsidy. To fully own SESB, TNB’s 80% shares must be bought over by the state.
Addressing the financial challenge Sabah faces to own SESB, Tangau mentioned that the utility company is fully dependent on subsidies from Putrajaya. He stated that SESB is accumulating losses due to the lower power tariff imposed on consumers compared to the cost of acquisition or generation of power. He emphasized that this challenge must be taken into consideration and handled by Sabah.
Tangau expressed confidence in achieving full ownership of SESB within seven years if all stakeholders work together to realize the SESB Transformation Plan.
