DISCONNECTION OF UTILITIES

Parliament of Singapore · 19 January 2009

Official Report, 19 January 2009, Vol 85, Issue 7 · Open in the reader (summaries, search, filters)

(Number of households): **

Mr Seah Kian Peng asked 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.

Mr Lim Hng Kiang: 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

No. of accounts disconnected

No. of accounts reconnected

---|---|---

Dec-07

3,404

3,238

Jan-08

2,852

2,793

Feb-08

2,288

2,188

Mar-08

2,785

2,761

Apr-08

3,492

3,614

May-08

2,916

3,053

Jun-08

3,252

3,246

Jul-08

2,326

2,749

Aug-08

206

Sep-08

775

659

Oct-08

3,426

2,815

Nov 08

1,645

1,811

Source: SP Services

Column: 1199

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 instalment 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.

Column: 1199

Source: Singapore Parliament Official Report (Hansard) for 19 January 2009. Republished on SGParliament.