Gas and electricity increases to be kept below the GST

27/4/00
Gas and electricity charges will rise from July 1 because of the Federal Government's Goods and Services Tax.
The State Government will make no changes to gas and electricity tariffs.
The GST-related increase will be 9.3 per cent for both utilities - below the full 10 per cent.
Energy Minister Colin Barnett said today the Coalition Government had only increased gas and power charges once since coming to office in 1993.
He said the new increases had been forced on AlintaGas and Western Power because of the GST with which the two had to comply.

"The GST component will be shown on all accounts after July 1," Mr Barnett said.
"It applies to all customers - residential and business.
"Commercial business customers can claim a credit for the GST component if they are a GST registered business and have an Australian Business Number."
Mr Barnett said neither Western Power nor AlintaGas retained any of the 9.3 per cent or the 0.7 per cent savings achieved with the introduction of the GST.
He said the total 10 per cent GST - on customers' accounts - was passed on to the Federal Government.
Western Power's residential tariff remained unchanged but the cost was up from 12.75 cents a unit to 13.94 cents a unit and the daily supply charge from 23.39 cents to 25.57 cents because of the GST.
The 9.3 per cent GST component of electricity tariffs would add about 19 cents a day for the average residential customer in the South West Interconnected System who uses 13 units of electricity a day - about $65 a year.
Mr Barnett said Western Power had reviewed the impact of the GST on all its tariffs, charges and products.
He said there would be no change to tariffs applying to NaturalPower but the daily supply charge, peak and weekend shoulder energy charged for SmartPower had been amended to reflect GST.
The average gas bill of $81 a quarter will rise by about $7.50.
Media contact: Diana Callander 9222 9699