Sharp rise in connection fees in Sarawak
25/06/2007 The Star

KUCHING: New housebuyers in Sarawak will have to fork out more money following a sharp increase in electricity connection fees by Syarikat SESCo.

Developers and others related to property industry are not happy about this and have sent their protests to the company.

The magnitude of the increase is unreasonable and unfair to developers and consumers, they said.

Sarawak Housing and Real Estate Developers Association chairman William Wei said that a developer now has to contribute an average of RM12,000 in power connection charges for a terrace house – up from RM5,500 previously.

Similarly, he said that the new connection fees for a low-cost house had shot up to between RM3,800 and RM4,000.

Before this, the fees were between RM1,800 and RM2,000.

Currently, developers bear the bulk of the cost of bringing electricity to their projects.

Now, the developers would have to pass the additional charges to housebuyers.

“It will be an extra burden for them,” Wei admitted.

He told The Star, however, that developers would absorb the additional charges for undelivered houses, for which sale and purchase agreements had been signed with the buyers.

The association, together with the Sarawak branches of the Institute of Engineers Malaysia and the Association of Architects Malaysia, have sent a joint memorandum to SESCo to protest the revised connection fees.

They are also seeking a meeting with the company and have urged the state government to step in to help resolve the matter.

Syarikat SESCo is a subsidiary of Sarawak Energy Bhd, which is majority-owned by the Sarawak Government.