Eligible households urged to register on e-platform for electricity subsidy

AMMAN — The government on Wednesday urged eligible households to register on the newly launched e-platform — kahraba.gov.jo — open to applicants until the beginning of April, in order to benefit from electricity subsidies.  

During a press conference held on the restructuring of electricity tariffs at the Energy Ministry, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Saleh Al Kharabsheh noted that those with a power bill below JD50 — who consume less than 600 kilowatt/hour and account for 90 per cent of Jordanians —will not be affected by the restructuring of the electricity tariff.

A total of JD50 million will be directed to the Kingdom’s economic sectors following the restructuring of electricity tariffs to help them reduce production and service costs, according to Kharabsheh.

He noted that the main goal of the tariff restructuring is “to reduce costs on these sectors, which are in dire need of alleviating costs, in order to contribute to economic development and the possibility of creating new job opportunities”.

According to Kharabsheh, “any profit gained as a result of the restructuring of the tariffs will go towards supporting the economic sectors, not to the Treasury or the National Electric Power Company, which will reduce the costs on the private sector and lower the prices of commodities”.

The minister indicated that the domestic sector will have three segments instead of seven after the restructuring as there will be two categories: A supported category and an unsupported category. 

The supported category will include all Jordanian citizens with a national number, the residents of the Gaza Strip residing in Jordan, as well as the temporary Jordanian passport holders.

“These categories will be allowed to apply for support for one meter, which does not necessarily have to be registered in their name if their household is rented. All that is required to get support on the meter is to enter the website, the process is easy and simple,” Kharabsheh explained.

Those not mentioned in the supported category will be considered part of the unsupported category, according to the minister. 

 “Our goal is to restructure and remove some ambiguities in order to support the economic sectors,” Kharabsheh said.

Also speaking during the press conference, Minister of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship Ahmed Al Hanandeh said that 115,000 people have registered on the electricity subsidy link so far, noting that the registration on the platform is ongoing until the beginning of April.

“It was necessary to have a certain mechanism so that citizens can register in accordance with the standards set by the Energy and Minerals Regulatory Commission (EMRC), which is why we created this website,” Hanandeh said.

According to Hanandeh, the person is required to enter their national number, family register number and the phone number for verification, as well as the meter number and the electricity company.

"If the request meets the criteria set by the EMRC, it will be accepted directly,” he continued.

The director of the EMRC, Hussein Labboun, said that the restructuring of the electricity tariff consists of two parts, a part directed for each of the economic sector and the domestic sector.

According to Labboun, there are five sectors affected by the new structure, the commercial, industrial, agricultural, hotel and health sectors, which witnessed reduced electricity tariffs.

Labboun indicated that the reduction was on two levels, the tariff price, i.e. the price of kilowatt/hour used by these sectors, and the maximum load tariff, which was a great obstacle for the sectors.

The reduction rate for the agricultural sector is about 9 percent, while the commercial sector’s reduction reached more than 6 percent, he said.

“The commercial sector received great support because of the volume of its contributions, the estimated size of support for this sector exceeds JD17 million,” he said.

As for the health sector, especially private hospitals, the rate of reduction of its tariff reached 12 percent, Labboun noted.

The EMRC announced a new distribution of electricity tariff costs in August 2021 in the domestic sector, according to several segments depending on the amount of consumption, to be implemented by April this year.