This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on December 23, 2015.

KUALA LUMPUR: Gas Malaysia Bhd announced that the government had revised the natural gas tariff for the non-power sector in Peninsular Malaysia, which will come into effect on Jan 1, 2016.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday, Gas Malaysia said the revision was in line with the national rationalisation plan, which includes the adjustment of piped gas price every six months, with the implementation of the gas cost pass-through mechanism. The previous tariff adjustment was done on June 8.

On average, the gas tariff has been increased by 17.11% to RM25.53/mmBtu (million British Thermal Units) from RM21.80/mmBtu.

The tariff for residential consumers, however, has been kept unchanged at RM19.52/mmBtu.

Consumers that use up to 600mmBtu annually, under tariff category B, will see a higher tariff of RM23.78/mmBtu, from RM20.30 previously. The category C tariff (between 601mmBtu and 5,000mmBtu) will be 17.16% higher at RM23.90/mmBtu, while the category D tariff (between 5,001mmBtu and 50,000mmBtu) will go up by 17.18% to RM24.14/mmBtu respectively.

The new tariff for categories E and F stood at RM25.19/mmBtu, from RM21.50/mmBtu previously, while those consuming more than 750,000mmBtu will be charged RM26.03/mmBtu, compared with the previous RM22.22/mmBtu.

Gas Malaysia rose four sen or 1.77% to close at RM2.30 yesterday, valuing it at RM2.88 billion.