Minister Lim Hng Kiang's written reply to Parliament Questions on Breakdown of electricity accounts disconnected

Question No. 164 in Notice paper No. 299 of 2008

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
Mr Seah Kian Peng, Member for Marine Parade GRC

Question
To ask the Minister for Trade and Industry whether he will provide a monthly breakdown of the number of households that have had their utilities disconnected over the last 12 months.

Answer
The number of households that had their electricity accounts disconnected and reconnected from December 2007 to November 2008 is shown in Table 1.On the whole, despite rising electricity tariffs during this period, there is no clear upward or downward trend in the number of disconnections.

Table 1 : Number of Electricity Supply Disconnections and Reconnections

Source: SP Services

There was a drop in the number of disconnections in the months of August and September 2008 because SP Services had held back disconnections when it switched to a new billing system. There is also a close correlation between the number of disconnections and reconnections in each month.

Disconnection of electricity supply is done only after various avenues to recover payment by SP Services have been exhausted. This includes sending reminder notices, and alerting the customer of an impending disconnection, as well as visiting the consumer before supply is disconnected. SP Services will also assist customers to work out an installment plan on a case-by-case basis, to avoid a possible disconnection.

HDB households who have had their electricity supplies disconnected are also offered the PAYU (Pay-as-you-use) scheme. With the use of pre-paid meters, PAYU helps the consumer to better manage his consumption, and at the same time, allows the consumer to get back his supply while settling the arrears over an extended period.