KOTA KINABALU – The return of Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) to the Sabah government will take time, said Energy and Natural Resources Minister Dr Shamsul Anuar Nasarah.
He said SESB needs to be in "perfect" condition before it is handed back to the state and a technical committee has been established to look into the handover.
“The federal government remains committed to returning SESB back to Sabah,” he said when recently met at Kampung Numbak in Sepanggar, some 30 minutes from here.
“The process will take time. But believe us this is for the good of the Sabah people and the state.”
SESB is financially distressed based on its latest annual report. The utilities company posted RM2.3 billion in revenue and net profit of RM110.58 million, due to subsidies from the federal government.
But SESB’s current liabilities (RM2.11 billion) have exceeded its current assets (RM1.91 billion) for FY19, a red flag for a business to continue as a going concern.
Its cash and cash equivalents for the period under review stood at RM285.99 million which is not sufficient to cover its short-term debt as well as operating expenses which stood at RM1.79 billion.
Further, SESB defaulted on an RM304.9 million loan with Putrajaya as at December 31, therefore accruing a RM13.1 million penalty. SESB is currently negotiating with the federal government on the delay and penalty.
Sabah has been long dogged by constant power failure issues for decades. In 2019, SESB lost RM4 million from power theft alone.
National utility giant Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) is SESB’s major shareholder with an 82.75% stake. The Sabah government owns the remainder while the Ministry of Finance Inc (MoF Inc) holds a golden share.
Caretaker chief minister Mohd Shafie Apdal recently said Sabah was supposed to take back control of SESB this year but the Perikatan Nasional government has put it on hold.
Earlier, Shamsul said there's an urgent need to deal with the power theft problem in the state where it was most rampant in squatter colonies after he walked around Kg Numbak, a water village adjacent to the Sepanggar naval base. – The Vibes, September 24, 2020
