The government has expanded the electricity bill protection threshold for domestic users from 600 kWh to 800 kWh a month, effective for usage from September until December 31, 2026. The announcement was made today by prime minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who described it as an immediate measure to ease cost of living pressures.
Under the temporary measure, domestic users consuming up to 800 kWh a month are exempted from three bill components – the Automatic Fuel Adjustment (AFA), the RM10 monthly retail charge (Caj Peruncitan) and sales and service tax (SST). Previously, all three kicked in once monthly usage crossed 600 kWh.
Anwar said the recent haze and hotter weather have pushed up electricity consumption in some households, taking their monthly usage past the 600 kWh mark and resulting in unusually high bills. That’s a real effect of how the tariff structure works – as explained in our guide to the TNB tariff introduced in July 2025, the AFA exemption is all-or-nothing, so a household that crosses the threshold pays the surcharge on its entire month’s usage, not just the excess – plus the RM10 retail charge and SST on top.
With September’s AFA rate set at +3.67 sen/kWh, a household using 700 kWh would have paid around RM25.70 in AFA, RM10 in retail charge and about RM3.50 in SST – roughly RM39 now removed from the bill. At 800 kWh, the saving works out to about RM47. The timing matters too: our September AFA report noted projections of +3.36 sen/kWh for October, +2.81 for November and +5.48 for December, so the exemption covers what are expected to be the most expensive AFA months of the year, December especially.
The prime minister credited TNB, the energy transition and water transformation ministry (PETRA) and the Energy Commission for enabling the measure to be implemented quickly, and said the government will continue to monitor fuel costs and energy market conditions to ensure tariff decisions balance the rakyat’s cost of living against supply security and the sustainability of the energy sector.
Note that the protection applies to usage from September 2026, so it should already be reflected in bills covering this month’s consumption, and the threshold reverts to 600 kWh from January 1, 2027. Based on the government’s infographic, the 800 kWh figure replaces the 600 kWh limit across all three components; for households using more than 800 kWh, we understand the charges apply as per the existing structure at the higher threshold.
