It was disclosed in Parliament, yesterday that between 2004 and May, 2008 Tenaga Nasional Berhad paid RM43 billion to the Independent Power Producers (IPP).
Apparently TNB has been paying a lot of money for standby power. But, get this, the international norm for standby capacity is 15% to 20%. What we have in Malaysia is a 40% standby capacity.
It has been reported that YTL Group has a cash hoard of RM11 billion.
It has also been reported that most of the RM11 billion cash hoard resides in YTL Power, an IPP that is 53% owned by the YTL Group.
When YTL Group and its Great Helmsman, Francis Yeoh crows about having bargains galore to acquire during the economic turmoil, I'm not sure whether to wave the Malaysian flag in a fit of patriotic fervour or, utter silent curses that while all Malaysians are born equal, some Malaysians are more equal than others. Francis Yeoh certainly counts as one of the primus inter pares (first among equals).
George Orwell may have been right after all although I must apologise for giving his seminal work on abuse of power by the state a capitalist twist.
This is the peril of privatisation and negotiated tenders.
4 comments:
It was such a treat to read this post! :)
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oi walla
I see you speak in "tongues" again. But, thank goodness I can understand! Many thanks, you great "ferreter" of knowledge :D
One reason given by MOF for not pushing the windfall tax on the IPPs is so that the islamic bond market be not affected. To theoretically save this niche market from the side effect of that tax, they willingly sacrifice the utility cost on everything - industry, services, tourism - pushing our national competitiveness down. Twenty six million citizens are incurring more in power cost. Given the surplus 'take or pay' deal of the YTL-type IPPs of this land, we could well be paying at least fifty percent more in our power bills.
One always thought the objective of privatizing state-owned enterprises should be higher national efficiency in the distribution of must-have economic services at affordable prices to all, not national wastage translated as locked-in obscene profits to cronies at immense grief for protracted periods to citizenry and industry.
And that's why i was inclined to speak in tongues. The alternative would have been sheer expletives. Maybe i should start practising some arabic ululations.
Thanks, de minimis.
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