Electricity Privatisation Bill Delayed Over Tariffs

TDT | Manama 

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A government bill to privatise Electricity and Water Authority has been put off to the next session after MPs and the government failed to agree on tariff controls and the treatment of multi-family households.

Public Utilities and Environment Committee chairman Mohammed Mousa said the committee and the ministry had agreed on 10 articles in the bill, all of which he said were in citizens’ favour.

The dispute, he said, was now confined to two files: tariffs and households made up of more than one family.

‘We in the committee insisted that the tariff be included within the articles of the law,’ he said. ‘If the government wishes in the future to lower or raise the tariff, this must be done with the approval of Parliament.’

Mr Mousa said the committee’s stance came from MPs’ views, which he said were treated as matters that should be written into the law.

‘The committee takes MPs’ views into account and deals with them as important matters that must be included in the law,’ he said.

The second unresolved file concerns multi-family households. Mr Mousa said the government had not yet submitted a clear study on the matter. The issue had been referred to the Social Development Ministry, but no final reply had been given.

He said the committee had asked, at its last meeting, for the Electricity and Water Affairs Minister, the Social Development Minister and eGovernment representatives to attend.

The aim, he said, was to reach wording that protects the rights of multi-family households within the law.

Mr Mousa said no agreement had yet been reached with the government on either tariffs or multi-family households.

For that reason, he said, the committee decided to put off discussion of the electricity and water law until the next session.