TNB Raises Electricity Bill Exemption To 800 kWh Until December

LocalBusiness & Finance
18 Sep 2026 • 8:10 PM MYT
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If your home uses between 600 and 800 kWh of electricity a month, your TNB bill is about to get smaller. From September through December, households using up to 800 kWh won’t pay the Automatic Fuel Adjustment (AFA), the RM10 retail charge or SST. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim announced the change on 17 September after a meeting with TNB and the Energy Commission. Until now the limit was 600 kWh.

Anwar said the haze and hotter weather had pushed some homes over 600 kWh, resulting in unusually higher electricity bills. 

What You’ll Save

Three charges are waived once you’re under the limit. The AFA is set every month by the Energy Commission, and for September it’s a surcharge of 3.67 sen per kWh. The retail charge is a flat RM10 a month. SST is 8% on the part of your usage above 600 kWh. This is roughly what that adds up to.

The SST column is an estimate. TNB works SST out on the energy, capacity, network and AFA charges for the units above 600 kWh, so the amount on your bill will be a ringgit or two different. If you use 600 kWh or less, nothing changes. You weren’t paying these charges before and you still won’t.

What Happens If You Go Over 800 kWh

Under the old 600 kWh rule, going just 1 kWh over the limit could mean paying the charges on your full usage. Use 601 kWh and you pay AFA on all 601 units, not just the one unit over. TNB hasn’t said whether the 800 kWh limit works the same way. If it does, a home at 801 kWh pays about RM47 more than a home at 800 kWh. If you’re anywhere near the limit, keep an eye on the kWh usage on your bill or in the myTNB app for the next three months.

Already Got Your September Bill?

The announcement came on 17 September, so some households may already have received their September bill. TNB hasn’t said yet whether those bills will be corrected or the difference taken off the October bill. We’ll update this article when it does.

Why Your Bill Feels Higher This Year

TNB said on 15 September that consumers had received RM3.1 billion in AFA rebates since the mechanism started in July 2025, against RM800 million in surcharges. Both figures are right, but the rebates were mostly in the first year. 

The AFA has also become more expensive in recent months. It was a 1.38 sen per kWh surcharge in May, rising to 3.67 sen in September. TNB’s latest quarterly projection puts December at 5.48 sen per kWh, although that’s only a forecast. 

What To Do In January

The exemption ends on 31 December, and there’s no word yet on what happens in January. 

If the limit goes back to 600 kWh and the AFA stays near September’s level, a 700 kWh home would pay about RM39 more a month again. Our TNB bill explainer breaks down every charge on the new bill format, and if your usage sits near the limit, TNB’s Time-of-Use tariff shows what moving some of it to off-peak hours can do.

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The post TNB Raises Electricity Bill Exemption To 800 kWh Until December appeared first on RinggitPlus.

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