There is no escaping a hike in electricity bills, Ahmed Kotb reports Despite official denials, electricity prices are on their way for a 7.5 per cent increase. The decision due in October has been pushed back to December because of parliamentary elections. Postponement or not, the decision means that people have to make sure they know how they are being charged and review their consumption. Already many citizens have been noticing an increase in the electricity bill since the beginning of the summer. The exorbitant bills seemed incomprehensible even though consumption this summer went over the roof due to the exceptional hot weather. "I used to pay around LE200 a month," says bank accountant Mahmoud Abaza, adding that he started to pay around LE1,000 since last July's bill. Abaza, like most people, believes his electricity consumption did not increase much over the past year. Any increase in electricity fees would not be welcome by consumers. The Ministry of Electricity and Energy would neither confirm nor deny the expected 7.5 per cent increase in electricity prices saying only the Cabinet of Ministers is responsible for approving any hikes. According to Aktham Abul-Ela, deputy minister of electricity and energy, most people are not aware of how their electricity consumption is calculated. He explained that consumption is divided into six segments. The first segment includes those who use less than 50 kilowatts per month. Those amount to four million families, according to Ministry of Electricity figures. Consumers who fall within this segment pay LE0.05 per kilowatt. The actual price is LE0.19 but the government subsidises it with LE0.14. The second segment includes approximately 10 million families who use up to 200 kilowatts per month. For this segment the kilowatt is worth LE0.11. Those who consume between 201 and 350 kilowatts fall within the third segment. They pay LE0.16 per kilowatt. The fourth segment which consumes between 351 and 650 kilowatts is charged LE0.24 per kilowatt. The fifth segment charged LE0.39 consumes between 651 kilowatts and 1,000. Those who consume more than 1,000 kilowatts per month constitute the sixth and final segment and they pay LE0.48 per kilowatt. Direct subsidies provided by electricity companies in 2008/2009 amounted to LE4.2 billion, and those who benefit from the subsidy are the consumers of less than 730 kilowatts and they constitute 98 per cent of all consumers, according to Abul-Ela. "Unknowingly, a consumer can move from a segment to another," Abul-Ela noted. "For instance, the consumption increase of a second segment consumer who buys an air-conditioner through instalments might place him in the fourth or fifth segment's evaluation and receive a higher bill as a result," he said. But higher electricity bills are bound to reflect themselves beyond the immediate consumer. Hisham Adel, ophthalmologist, pointed out that any increase in the price of any basic product or service forces him to charge his patients more money in order to afford that increase. He demanded service improvements to be commensurate with the size of the bill, adding that he always fears power outages during his operations. The government had started in 2004 to raise electricity prices by five per cent annually. That stopped in 2009 following the global economic recession, Abul-Ela said. An official who requested anonymity said that the expected increase in prices is a return to the five per cent annual increase including 2.5 per cent which will be used to pay the Ministry of Electricity's debts to the Ministry of Petroleum that has been supporting electricity projects with needed fuel. The increases will continue over the next four years, until 2013, according to a government decision. The industry sector will be exempted from the increments since they were subject to price increases around three months ago, the same official said. Nonetheless, Abul-Ela points out that consumers who fall within the first two segments remain exempt from any increase in prices.
