Village Residents from Mon and Karen States Search for Electricity at a Fair Price

January 16, 2014

Last month, it was widely reported that government authorities would provide Mon State with enough electricity for all of its residents for 2014. In Mawlamine city, residents receive free electricity in 24 hours, whereas village residents do not. The government’s promise has not come to pass, and village residents who remain without electricity hope to pay low fees for it, from electric officers who offer honest prices. In reality, that will be hard to find, as electric officers in the electric administration department notoriously deceive the people, and charge unfair, inflated electric fees.

In 2014, government authorities announced that residents from Mon and Karen States will receive electricity to their homes, which would be available once the authorities had constructed electrical power in Mawlamine.

To date, the government has not provided electricity for all village residents, and local electric administrators have gone so far as encouraging residents who have not received electricity to obtain it themselves. Residents must rely on themselves, and collect money from each household, in order to apply for electricity from the government.

Since the government does not provide electricity to Mon areas, these areas have recently become desirable for many contractors to base their electric businesses. With such desire, has come corruption. Notably, electric contractors have acted illegally, in order to assure that ice production machines and computers are placed in Mon areas.

More, electric shopkeepers in Mawlamine city have illicitly sought out beneficial relationships with various electric officers and administrators. Many electronic shopkeepers, electric contractors, and electric servants bribe electric officers to allow electricity into the villages, because the shopkeepers, contractors, and servants know they will benefit from the residents. Many have been going around to restaurants, where electric administrators and officers can usually be found, and bribing them with offers of SIM cards.

Further hindering the availability of local electricity, it has been reported that many village electric committees did not want to use their budget to provide electricity to residents, nor did they want to cooperate with electric officers by requesting electric service. Instead, many village electric committees bought materials on their own, in an effort to supply electricity themselves, producing problems between electric committees, electric officers, and city officials.

In order to receive electricity in their homes, Mon residents must rely on electric contractors. Many contractors have taken advantage of the resident’s dependence, and charge an inflated rate of 700 kyat per residential unit, which is equal in price to a bottle of petrol. With roughly twenty residential units in a given village, each community is forced to pay 14,000 kyat per month, and 160,000 kyat per year for electricity.

Electric administrators have also applied many fees to local residents for installing electric transformers to transport electricity to the villages. In each village, residents have had to invest around one million kyat for a 200 force transformer, on top of the 450,000 kyat fee for getting electricity to individual homes. In order to receive electricity, villages are charged a total of 700,000-1,000,000 kyat for electricity fees, electric wires, a meter box, and various other transporting fees.

However, in Thaton Township, Mon State, residents are charged a much lower rate of 350,000 kyat for electricity, which indicates a much fairer, less corrupt relationship between village residents and electric administrators, than in other parts of Mon State.

Residents can easily find any discrepancies applied by corrupt electric administrators by reviewing electric fees per electric pole. Previously, village residents have had to pay between 80,000-150,000 kyat per electric pole. Recently, the fee has increased to 200,000 kyat per electric pole.

In Mawlamine city, however, residents are provided electricity from government sharing, and are charged only 35 kyat per residential unit. Conversely, the city’s electric administrator charges between 60 and 70 kyat per unit in villages surrounding the city. This incongruity has led to problems between village residents and the electric committee, who is meant to represent the residents’ interest.

Furthermore, electricity fees differ between the city and surrounding villages, as the electric fee in the city is less than half the price of village electric fees. Not only does the rate of fees differ, but the price of electric materials differs as well.

Recently, an electric officer from Mawlamine visited villages to persuade residents to apply for electricity from the city. In order to apply for electricity from the city residents must, first, show 10,000,000 kyat to a bank as a guarantee. Then, they need to request permission from many electric officers. After they have received permission from the officers, they also must to pay for the generator’s materials.

A member of the electric administration group has stated that “In 2013, due to electric administrator and committee requests, the villages around Mudon and Thanbuyzayat Township [received] electricity from the city. Though they had to spend much of [their own money] to get electricity from the city, they could not yet use the electricity freely”.

A member from the electric administration warned residents that, “if possible, [they] should not take the electricity from the city, if [they] have to buy it”. The electric administrator explains that, “even though [residents will have] invested much of [their own] money for getting the electricity, [they] will not own any electric pole, and it will belong to the government. [In the end,] the residents will have lost all of their investment in the electricity”.

This electric administrator may warn residents against taking electricity from the city, but residents find themselves in a difficult situation. Although buying the electric materials, and setting up the electricity themselves may save them from paying fees to electric contractors and officers, it is still expensive for the residents to pay for all of the materials.

One member from the electric office explained to the residents that, “if you have to buy [electricity] from the city, do not take it, because it will [be expensive]. However, one day, the government will distribute [electricity] to the residents”. The electric officer advised village residents to, “Wait patiently to accept the electricity from the government, because it [will] cost less”.

According to democratic rule, all aspects concerning a country’s local development, such as electricity and water, relate to the government. In Mawlamine city, residents receive free electricity in 24 hours, whereas village residents do not. There are unfair offers between city residents and local village residents. Furthermore, electric fees applied to village residents do not go local development, but directly benefit government authorities.

Written by HURFOM · Filed Under News