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About three weeks ago I was walking along the beach quietly minding my own business when my ears were suddenly assaulted by a terrible sound. It was a sort of wailing, you know, the sort of noise you hear in an Aussie pub when a housewife suddenly realises she has lost the fortnight's house keeping money in a one armed bandit and she has got only 30 minutes before her bloke gets home and wants his tea on the table.
I looked around – no, no beached wail anywhere, but there it was again. It was deeper this time, more of an anguished “Manchester United losing 3-0 at home to Tranmere Rovers” sort of sound that tore at your very soul. It seemed to be coming from a recently renovated restaurant. I peered into the gloomy interior and saw a man sitting humpbacked over a table, his shoulders slumped and his head in his hands.
The IWC (International Wailing Commission) advises that wailing is only permitted in Bali for scientific purposes. This man was clearly no scientist although the piece of paper he was studying did look rather like a very expensive lab. report.
I approached him with concern. “What's wrong?” I asked “is your girlfriend pregnant?”
“No” he replied (not a sperm wail then).
“I sank my life's savings into this place, I am struggling to make ends meet and now I get an electricity bill for Rp 4 million! Last month it was less than Rp 2 million.”
He looked at the lab report once again his bottom lip starting to quiver.
“I don't feel well” he wailed, “my B. Beban is all right but my Tarip Non Subsidi has gone through the roof!”
Then I recognised that horrific sound, it was the sound of money being rent from a poor unsuspecting businessman's wallet.
Confused? Let me try and clarify things.
Back in August 2007 (see “Counting Electrons”) I explained how to read your PLN electricity bill. Since then there have been some changes. The bills themselves are now smaller (sorry, not in financial terms) and with a different, harder to decipher, format. Back in August I didn't mention business rates which we need to look at, but most importantly on the 1st of April 2008 PLN stopped fully subsidising high electricity users resulting in hefty increases to some power bills.
Let us look again at what has become an even more cryptic piece of paper. Set aside a spare day or two, take a couple of Valium, pull out a recent bill and we'll try and make some sense of it.
Let us look again at what has become an even more cryptic piece of paper. Set aside a spare day or two, take a couple of Valium, pull out a recent bill and we'll try and make some sense of it.
Above is our poor unfortunate wailer's bill. The translation below will help I hope. Let us start at the top right hand corner, here you will see the billing date. Below this the underlined heading states the billing month.
The first section of the bill itself is obvious: IDPEL/NOPEL, NAMA, ALAMAT is the customer ID, bill number, name and address.
Note that a very important piece of information is provided in brackets at the right hand end of the second line of the bill. This is the tariff (TARIP) and the maximum allowed rate of power usage (DAYA). In the above bill B2 / 7700 indicates a business tariff B2 and a maximum power of 7,700 watts (at 220 volts this is 35 amps). 7,700 watts is of course the same as 7.7 kilowatts.
Now we get to the nitty gritty. STAND LWBP (Luar Waktu Beban Puncak) means “usage offpeak load”. The first number (118599) is the latest meter reading in kilowatt hours, the second number (115435) is the former meter reading and the third number (3114) is the number of kilowatt hours used during the billing period.
Don't worry about the next two lines, STAND WBP (Waktu Beban Puncak) in fact means “usage at peak load” but this and the next line STAND KVARH are only used for high usage customers such as large factories.
B BEBAN (BIAYA BEBAN) is the fixed charge you have to pay. This varies according to the rate you are on and the maximum rate of power usage you are allowed. The chart below gives all the rates and the fixed charge calculations. The word ANGUR means “instalment” and is for part payments.
B PAKAI (BIAYA PAKAI) is the charge for subsidised electricity used. This has changed. It used to be that all power usage was charged at the subsidised rate. The subsidised rate is still the same as before and varies according to the tariff you are on from Rp 254 per kilowatt hour on a B1 / 450 watt tariff to Rp 610 per kilowatt hour on an R3 tariff greater than 7,700 watts.
On April 1st 2008 a new system was introduced designed to penalise heavy power users. If you are on an R3 or B2 tariff of 6,600 watts or more you now have a monthly allowance of kilowatt hours which is charged at the subsidised rate. Usage more than this allowance is charged at the none subsidised full cost of electricity which is currently Rp 1,380 per kilowatt hour. Many people are using considerably more then their subsidised allowance and this is why they have suddenly found substantial increases in their power bills. The bill above increased by Rp 2 million.
Working out this allowance is a rather strange calculation based on an allowed number of hours per month at the maximum power usage, yes I know your eyes are glazing over but don't worry, in the chart below I have calculated the subsidised allowance in kilowatt hours per month for each tariff rate (column F).
TARIP NON SUBSIDI is a new line on your bill and is the number of kilowatt hours above the subsidised allowance charged at the full none subsidised rate of Rp 1,380 per kilowatt hour.
Note that this TARIP NON SUBSIDI line is in fact out of order on your bill because it is in fact included in the total REKENING. The REKENING is the subtotal in Rupiah for electricity charges and is: the fixed charge (B BEBAN) plus the subsidised power charge (B PAKAI) plus the none subsidised power charge (TARIP NON SUBSIDI).
The next line on the bill, MATERAI, is stamp duty of Rp 6,000 charged for the bill.
Towards the bottom of the bill are two more charges, these are PPJ and PPN. PPJ is a charge of 5% of the REKENING for street lights and PPN is 10% government tax. Note that PPN is applied to residential tariffs R1, R2 and R3 but not to business tariffs B1, B2 and B3.
Finally TAGIHAN is the amount to be paid which is the REKENING plus the MATERAI plus the PPJ plus the PPN. TERBILANG is the TAGIHAN written in words.
Now I have totally confused you I will finish you off with a chart:
To calculate your bill let us say you have used Q KWH (Kilowatt hours) in the month and this is less than your subsidised limit F above:
Residential R tariffs: Business B tariffs:
Fixed Charge (B BEBAN) C C
+ Subsidised Usage (B PAKAI) Q x D Q x D
= Sub total (REKENING)
+ Stamp duty (MENTAI) Rp 6,000 Rp 6,000
+ Street Lamps charge (PPJ) 5% of REKENING 5% of REKENING
+ Government Tax (PPN) 10% of REKENING no tax
= Total Invoice (TAGIHAN)
If your usage Q is more than your subsidised allowance:
Residential R tariffs: Business B tariffs:
Fixed Charge (B BEBAN) C C
+ Subsidised usage (B PAKAI) D x F D x F
+ None subsidised usage (Q – F) x Rp 1,380 (Q – F) x Rp 1,380
= Sub total (REKENING)
+ Stamp duty (MENTAI) Rp 6,000 Rp 6,000
+ Street Lamps charge (PPJ) 5% of REKENING 5% of REKENING
+ Government Tax (PPN) 10% of REKENING no tax
= Total Invoice (TAGIHAN)
You have, of course, long ago given up trying to understand and drifted off into a deep troubled sleep dreaming of those little electrons hurtling down the wires causing that meter to spin at millions of revs to the merry jingle of money falling into cash registers far, far away..........
Phil Wilson
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