A fresh bid to ease soaring electricity bills for Bahraini families living under the same roof is being launched by the Muharraq Municipal Council, after an earlier proposal based on a ‘multiple classification’ system was rejected.
An urgent extraordinary meeting of the Muharraq Municipal Council yesterday, chaired by acting chairman Saleh Buhazaa, backed a recommendation to the Municipalities Affairs and Agriculture Minister Wael Al Mubarak, who will forward it to Electricity and Water Affairs Minister Yasser Humaidan.
It called for electricity subsidy thresholds to be calculated according to the actual number of eligible Bahraini families living in a property, rather than treating the entire property as a single household.
The proposal is aimed particularly at extended or compound families, where two or more independent Bahraini families share one property.
Under the proposed mechanism, subsidised consumption thresholds would increase according to the number of eligible families. Two qualifying families would effectively receive double the current thresholds, while three families would receive triple those thresholds, subject to verification of residency, eligibility and safeguards against duplicate benefits.
“The proposal does not seek additional support for people who are not entitled to it,” said Mr Buhazaa. “It seeks to recognise the existing entitlements of eligible Bahraini families who happen to live in the same property.”
He said the council had received numerous complaints from citizens whose electricity bills had climbed sharply because several families were sharing one electricity account.
Under the current tariff structure for a Bahraini citizen’s first home, the first 3,000 kilowatt-hours are charged at three fils per kWh, the next 2,000 at nine fils, the following 2,000 at 16 fils, and consumption above 7,000 kWh at 32 fils.
For two eligible families living together, the proposed thresholds would rise to 6,000 kWh at three fils, 10,000 kWh at nine fils, 14,000 kWh at 16 fils, with consumption above that charged at 32 fils.
“The current system means that where two or more families live in the same property, the subsidised bands can be exhausted much faster,” Mr Buhazaa said. “This can push consumption into higher-priced bands even though each family could have qualified for the subsidy had they been living separately.”
Services and public utilities committee chairman Abdulqader Al Sayed said the council was acting after repeated complaints and the rejection of the previous approach.
“Many families have fallen into a cycle of sharply rising electricity and water bills, particularly compound families,” he said. “The rejection by the authorities concerned has pushed us to take this urgent step.”
Financial, administrative and legislative committee chairman Fadel Al Oud said the growing number of cases reaching the council demonstrated the seriousness of the problem.
“A Bahraini citizen deserves government support as the head of an independent family, not simply as a resident within a multi-family property,” he said.
Mr Al Oud also linked the issue to the housing waiting list, arguing that accelerating the delivery of independent homes would provide the most sustainable solution.
Technical committee chairman Mohammed Al Mahmood described the proposal as ‘fair and logical’, particularly after the earlier rejection of the multiple-classification mechanism.
He warned that leaving the current system unchanged would continue to place additional financial pressure on families.
The proposed arrangement would require each family to independently meet existing eligibility requirements, including Bahraini nationality, actual residence, matching identity and electricity-account details, and registration as a first home under the head-of-household category.
The council is also calling for safeguards to verify genuine residency and prevent double claims.
mohammed@gdnmedia.bh
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