Fewa hikes power tariff by 
5 fils per unit for expats

The Federal Electricity and Water Authority (Fewa) on Monday announced an increase of five fils per unit in electricity tariff in Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah, Fujairah and the Central Region of Sharjah to reduce wastage of resources and offset the increase in prices of natural gas used in power generation.

The power tariff hike, which is only for expatriate residents, and commercial, industrial and governmental sectors, follows a 15 per cent increase imposed a year ago to save resources for future generations and reduce carbon emission.

While this hike will not affect Emiratis, they will have to pay 1.5 fils instead of the current one fil for each gallon of water used beyond the subsidised slab, according to Fewa Director-General Mohammad Mohd Saleh.

Despite the year-long nationwide campaign for rationalising the consumption of water and electricity, there is still a drastic wastage of these critical resources by some sectors making tariff restructuring inevitable, said Saleh.

“The shocking figures showed that some sports clubs here consume 52 million gallons of water yearly whereas the annual consumption by some schools has hit eight million gallons and by some mosques 3.6 million gallons.”