NEED TO REVIEW GAS AND ELECTRICITY RATES -- MINISTER

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 12 (Bernama) -- The Minister of International Trade and
Industry Muhyiddin Yassin said there was a need to review gas and electricity
rates for industries as oil prices had fallen recently.

"This was requested by the industries as gas and electricity are the two
main components of their production cost," he told reporters after delivering a
New Year's message to staff of the Ministry of International and Trade Ministry
(MITI) here Monday.

"We will take up the matter with the relevant parties including Petronas,
Tenaga Nasional and the Ministry of Energy, Water and Communications for
deliberation," he said.

Muhyiddin also disclosed that there had been a previous discussion on the
issue with those concerned but no decision was made as it was held at a time
when oil prices were still high.

"But now, it is obvious that the rates needed to be reviewed, as oil prices
have fallen," he said.

According to Muhyiddin, besides reviewing the rates, the industries had also
asked for a bigger supply of gas.

For the electricity sector, gas is still a major primary energy input,
constituting 68 percent, with 63.8 percent of the installed generating
plants operating on gas.

On the further liberalisation of the services sector, Muhyiddin said that a
committee chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak would hold its first
meeting soon.

He said that some services in the sector needed to be liberalised
as the country was losing billions of dollars in terms of investment flow by
not opening up.
- BERNAMA