Electricity Relief Details Announced

Non-residential and residential electricity accounts are benefitting from government relief measures, the Environmental Bureau announced today.

Under the measures, nearly 90% of non-residential electricity bills obtained a 75% subsidy for electricity charges in March, while 40% of residential electricity accounts enjoyed zero electricity charges in the first quarter of the year.

The Government announced about $2.3 billion in provisions last December to provide an electricity charge subsidy to each eligible non-residential electricity account holder to cover 75% of their monthly electricity charges for four months, subject to a monthly cap of $5,000.

The Budget further provided $2.9 billion to extend the subsidy period to eight months.

According to the bills issued by the two power companies in March, 360,000 non-residential bills obtained a 75% subsidy. This is close to 90% of the total eligible non-residential tariff bills.

To balance the impact on people's livelihood of the recent transition to cleaner electricity generating systems in Hong Kong, the bureau implemented the electricity charges relief scheme in January 2019.

A monthly electricity charge relief of $50 has been granted to each eligible residential electricity account for 60 months.

To help the public cope with the challenging economic environment, the Government implemented a new round of one-off electricity charge subsidy schemes in January.

A subsidy of $160 will be credited to each residential electricity account from January to November, while $240 will be credited in December.

From early this year, over 2.7 million households have been benefitting from both the electricity charges relief measures and the electricity charges subsidy. The bills of the two power companies indicated that 40% of residential electricity accounts, representing 1 million households, enjoyed zero electricity charges.

The bureau called on the community to cherish environmental resources, including saving energy and electricity to mitigate climate change and improve air quality.