Few Bahraini homes cross power support threshold

TDT | Manama

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Only a minority of Bahraini household accounts went above the summer support thresholds in 2025, Electricity and Water Affairs Minister, His Excellency Yasser Humaidan, told Parliament yesterday.

He said 20,115 subsidised domestic accounts were above 5,000 electricity units in May and that the figure rose to 73,940 by September, while bills above BD150 for subsidised homes climbed from 1,917 to 9,550 over the same period.

H.E. Humaidan gave the figures as he defended the Electricity and Water Authority’s reply to a parliamentary question from MP Dr Mahdi Al Showaikh, who had complained that the written answer dealt mainly with accounts and bills that stayed below the thresholds rather than those that exceeded them.

Approach

The minister said the approach had been deliberate.

“It was not an attempt to avoid the answer,” he told the chamber, saying the authority chose to begin with the larger group of households still within the subsidised range in order to show “the efficiency and effectiveness of government support’ and how it had helped keep electricity and water costs at ‘reasonable levels” for most Bahraini families.

He said the figures showed that the cases above the thresholds were still limited when set against the full number of Bahraini domestic accounts.

Accounts For subsidised homes, the number of accounts above 5,000 units rose from 20,115 in May 2025, equal to 5 per cent, to 44,419 in June, or 10 per cent, then 57,680 in July, or 13 per cent, 66,495 in August, or 15 per cent, and 73,940 in September, H.E. Yasser Humaidan or 17 per cent.