Electric Power Corporation C.E.O. Faumui Tauiliili Toimoana has assured the Government will not revoke the 20 per cent electricity bill reduction for residential homes and businesses.

The Cabinet recently revoked a 20 per cent discount on electricity tariffs for Government ministries, state-owned enterprises (S.O.E.) entities and government bodies with the change coming into effect from 9 July 2023.

However, in an interview with the Samoa Observer on Wednesday, Faumui said the corporation is trying to speed up its plans and projects for Samoa's full transition to renewable energy but revoking the reduction bill for public consumers is not on the agenda.

"That will never happen because the 20 per cent reduction is in the Government's manifesto or policy so it can never happen," said Faumui. "The policy changing happened right at the time when the fuel prices went up so yes there have been financial losses within the corporation due to that and it will continue if the fuel price keeps going up.

"That's why we're looking at transitioning to Renewable Energy as fast as we possibly could to avoid ongoing losses and that's the best solution as outlined in our launched plan.

"Again, it was the Cabinet directive that we followed on the revoking of the reduction bill for electricity for Government ministries but I am confident that it will never happen to other consumers."

According to Faumui, part of the sector plan they launched last year for the transitioning of power supply to renewable energy is for Independent Power Producers (I.P.P.) to start producing power which is cheaper.

He further clarified that if power costs $0.52 cents before this plan is implemented, the cost will be reduced to about $0.34 cents.

The notice issued on the revoking of the reduction bill signed by the E.P.C. General Manager was issued regarding an order from Cabinet that revoked the 20 per cent reduction on the cost of electricity for government ministries. Government entities on prepayment meters (cash power) will be charged $1.02 per unit while Government entities on induction meters (readable power) will be charged $1.05 per unit.

In February of this year, the Samoa Observer revealed that the 20 per cent reduction in electricity bills has proven costly for the E.P.C as they've failed to meet operational demands leading to a SAT$60 million loss at the end of 2022. E.P.C. then proposed a return to cost-based tariffs which means Samoans could be looking at an increase in electricity bills.

Last year, the E.P.C. Board made recommendations to the Cabinet to return to cost-based tariff which meant removing the 20 per cent discount, to prevent losses and avoid E.P.C. becoming insolvent in the future.

Chairman of the E.P.C. Board, Pepe Christian Fruean told Samoa Observer at that time that he supports the Government's initiative on electricity reduction, as its goal was to assist families with their electricity bill expenses. But the challenges it came with for the E.P.C. was the consequence of continuing on the policy longer than anticipated.

The Government's policy of the 20 per cent reduction on electricity tariffs which was made effective in November 2021 was in line with the ruling party's election promises. With the fuel prices remaining costly due to the conflict in Ukraine, Pepe said the 67 cents per unit charge for the cash power that people are paying now, should be a lot more than that as prices should reflect the cost of fuel.