KUALA LUMPUR: The amendment of the Renewable Energy Bill will allow the Sabah government to manage the regulation of its electricity supply, says Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad.
The Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change Minister said the amendment to the Bill was necessary to allow the transfer of the electricity supply regulatory power to the Sabah state government on Jan 1, 2024.
“The Bill was previously tabled, debated and passed by the Lower House in the previous sitting under the last Administration,” said Nik Nazmi.
“It was decided by the Pakatan Harapan special select committee to review the implementation of the Malaysia Agreement (MA63) and we decided to restart the process after the dissolution of Parliament,” he added.
Nik Nazmi said that this is the government's commitment to transfer the power to Sabah to manage their electricity supply by including the clauses into the Renewable Act and Sustainable Energy Development Authority (Amendment) Bill.
He said this during his winding-up speech for the Bill in the Dewan Rakyat on Thursday (May 25).
Nik Nazmi then said that the transfer of power to the state government will be managed by the Sabah Energy Commission.
The Dewan Rakyat passed the Bill by a voice vote on Thursday in which the Amendment empowers the Minister to suspend the operation of whole or any of the provisions in the Act in different areas within the country.
The Dewan Rakyat also approved the Sustainable Energy Development Authority (Amendment) Bill which also allocated for the increase of the minister’s powers to suspend the provisions of the Act in any areas in Malaysia.
