Oman government agencies warned of power cuts

Muscat: Omani electricity companies have warned some government units that their power supply may be cut off after the accumulation of unpaid bills.

Some of the electricity companies have been facing challenges because of bureaucracy as well as a lack of response from some government agencies to their requests for payment, according to Azamn daily newspaper.

An official source at one of the electricity companies told the paper that the delay in paying electricity bills is a usual annual challenge, which has a detrimental effect on the companies.

“Some of the government units have not paid the company for more than three years,” according to the official.

Awareness programmes for some government employees by enlightening them of the best ways of power consumption as well as meeting with top officials to avoid power cuts and to pay dues are among the measures that the power companies recently have started.

One of the government units has recorded arrears of the electricity bills that exceeded more than 71,000 riyals, according to documents obtained by the paper.

Meanwhile, Oman is considering to raise electricity tariffs to save at least 7 per cent of the money it spends for subsidies in the sector.

Observers believe that the proposed amendment will affect users in the commercial and industrial sectors and the government institutions that consume more than 150MW.

Oman’s electricity subsidies were estimated to be more than 450 million riyals in 2015. Oman is eyeing extra revenues amid the slide in oil prices.

The 2016 General Budget released in January projects a 3.3-billion Omani riyal (Dh31.47-billion) deficit for 2016, which it says it will try to reduce by improving the non-oil revenues as well as cutting expenditures.

Oman posted a budget deficit of 4.5 billion riyals in 2015, as revenues declined by more than 50 per cent.