Do you know that 24 per cent of Malaysian households are struggling to make ends meet, earning less than RM1,500 a month? The figure would be higher if you define “low income” as households with a monthly income of below RM2,000. Check out this report in NST:
THE country’s poverty rate will increase from 3.7 per cent to 24.3 per cent if the poverty line is raised from the current RM800 to RM1,500 per household.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Amirsham A. Aziz said the definition of the poverty line was a household income sufficient for basic necessities. It does not include luxury items.
The basics are food, clothes and other expenses like rental, utilities, transport and communication, health, education and recreation.
“In short, the poverty line provides no room for luxuries like sending children to private schools or tuition classes, receiving treatment from private clinics or having their meals outside,” Amirsham said in reply to a question by Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim (PKR-Bandar Tun Razak).
However, the poverty line would be updated from time to time, taking into account the prevailing inflation rate.
The government had redefined the low-income group as people earning less than RM2,000 a month.
These are the households that are feeling the brunt of oil price and electricity tariff hikes.
Contrast their household income with the remuneration of the Tenaga Nasional Bhd CEO, who earns over RM1 million per year:
Basic salary RM600,000
Bonus RM302,000
EPF contribution RM113,280
Car allowance RM42,000
Flexible benefits RM50,000
Total RM1,107,280
Figures are from TNB’s 2007 Annual Report.
That translates to RM92,273/month for running what essentially amounts to a monopolistic service. Has he succeeded in renegotiating the Power Purchase Agreements with the IPPs? Tenaga is bleeding from these PPAs, under which it has to pay the IPPs ‘capacity payments’ for electricity it doesn’t really need.
Anyway, you can see that the TNB CEO earns in one month what 24 per cent of households in Malaysia earn in five years – which includes those households with both parents working.
If you think his salary is staggering, check out how much the directors of YTL Group are paid. According to YTL’s 2007 Annual Report, the group has half a dozen executive directors earning total income of more than RM1 million a year, with the highest earning close to RM3 million.
So it’s not surprising that Malaysia has one of the highest income disparities in the region.
Enjoy your electricity tariff hike!
Related posts:
In no time many will live below the poverty line
It is really sad that the BN government has myopic view
Of the people needs and welfare
The country has oil wealth
It has gone to wasteful projects and bailouts
Rendering the lives of the people
Struggling always to meet their living expenses
Here we have the BN leaders
Issuing economic statements
They don’t address the nation woes
By them from them hiding from the people
The utility companies shouldn’t be privatized
Look what happens now………………
Benefiting the cronies
Betraying the trust of the voters
The utilities should be under government purview
To service to the people not on profit motives
It is a service to the people that they can enjoy life
Without worrying to pay high utility bills
Look at what remuneration packages
The BN leaders coined to benefit supporters
These companies are allegedly used
As vehicles to promote cronyism
We as the tax payers have to pay
Losing all kinds of self worth in the end
When the country’s wealth are wasted
We are left to defend ourselves…….
Changing will come
Before everything goes to the drain
We can’t believe what BN says
Just look at their statements
They think we are children
Playing marbles on the streets
Complain about this comment
Like or Dislike:
3 
0
Yeah man. What is so hard managing a monopoly where the only way of making more money is not being more efficient but raising the tariff. So, i guess he deserves his promotion for getting the tariff approved.
Complain about this comment
Like or Dislike:
2 
0
in a free market i dont question any ceo’s pay package if that’s what the shareholders are willing to pay…
in a glc however…your revelation is outrageous!! tnb is no-brainer business. no competition, nothing. so what on earth justify that obscenely fat package? they think they’re jack welch or something??!!
i mean, how, for example, these g**** can make more than, say, our PM (by that i mean official remunerations lah, if you know what i mean…)?
malaysia, indeed, boleh!!
Complain about this comment
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
Dear Anil,
Can’t agree with you in comparing Executive Compensation Package with middle and low income groups’ remuneration.
Tenaga is a big player and one of the largest capped stocks quoted on the KLSE. CEO’s of at least 1/2 of all Plcs here draw million $ packages, the highest being Genting I think at $40 million, Berjay Group $ 9 million etc. EPF is 12% for all so this is a red herring. But you forgot 1 key element i.e. stock options.
We should compare exec pay packages with their peers here and abroad and then judge whether they are over/under paid. More than that the KPI’s should be examined. 8%-10% RoE is a joke given the capital and leveraging options companies like Tenaga & GLC’s have to play around with.
So, there should be a range of indices by which the CEO pay should be judged:
1. Peer pay packages
2. Monopoly or free market industry
3. KPI’s based on international norms
4. RoE
5. Gearing
6. Profit Before Tax
7. Special circumstances e.g. extortionate ‘take or pay’ contracts awarded to IPP’s.
Ultimately, it is performance that will dictate the CEO’s pay package. But unlike western countries and free market thinking, I feel strongly that CEO’s pay should be limited to say, not more than 8-10 times average highest management pay. It is also obscene that CEO’s should walk away with hundreds of millions of $ in golden hanshakes & stock options where companies lose money and shareholders are not paid a decent % of dividends!
Complain about this comment
Like or Dislike:
1 
1
How can you compare the TNB CEO pay with those poor people. Donald trump monthly salary will be salary of 5 entire generation of some poor family. You certainly do not pay those poor people’s pay to ask him to manage TNB. Stupid! If he brings in profit and value to the company than pay him. I don’t mind pay him 200% or 300% but all the other employees of the companied should also be rewarded. The poor family have no value even if you pay them the CEO pay, they do not worth it. If they are worth only 2k then they should just take 2k monthly until they add value for themselve.
Complain about this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
4
The directors of YTL deserve their pay and the gratitute of their shareholders who have reaped the rewards of the ability of the YTL management to negotiate a contract that requires TNB to buy whatever
YTL Power generates (the electricity side, I mean) even if TNB does not need it.
If the TNB CEO has the ability to enhance TNB financial performance by negotiating away that segment of the contract instead of achieving it via a tariff increase, then of course, he is worth every single sen of the million ringgit remuneration that he is paid, not withstanding the fact that TNB is a government controlled company operating in a monopolistic environment.
The people who control and run the likes of Genting, Berjaya and YTL
built their companies from scratch with vision and hard work.
I wonder how many of the head honchos of our GLCs have the track record of building their own companies prior to their appointment to their current post by our political masters.
Complain about this comment
Like or Dislike:
2 
0
Dear Anil,
We all know the performance of this guy.. just another Malay accountant… no specialist knowledge anyway…
But very good in making decorations in TMB.
You know why TNB staff are not performing? Not their fault really becos they are too busy carrying out the decoration orders by this CEO, who had now new ideas to improve TNB. Even its subsidiary SESB of Sabah is well know for SABAH ENJOYS SPECIAL BLACKOUTs
These are the things introduced by CEO Che khalib….
1. AKP- anugerah kuality president…
what quality? electricity production and distribution and collecting bill payments no different from any country…
So this anugerah are awarded to departments headed by their angkat kakis or shoe polishers as a reward to create decorations to put wool over the peoples eyes
2. 5 S..
this one is the most bulls*** activity where instead of using english or bahasa, Che Caleb insist on using the Japanese words..
SEIRI, SEITON SEKEITSU, SHITKUNKE etc..
could have easily used malay words…. susun sapu sentiasa pakai etc… Its nothing apart from what the western people will call “spring cleaning”
But CEO has to glamorised this nothing just to be seen as introducing something…
If you check their office, the staff waste time decorating and labelling doors, walls, even labelling ceiling lights…
I ask the netizen to visit their office and take pictures to post here.
3. Intoduce PSI or certification for ISO9001, no big deal anyway, all they do is write plenty of papers to show their processes… and prove to SIRIM that they follow their papers.
So what? that does not improve profitability, just look at their shar price, all going down the drain?
after all you can write a simple process, follow it and presto, certified ISO9001… alll crap bulls***.
4 Apart from that, visit their office and you will here multil letter jargons, which attempt to show as if they are so smart…
you will here such thing as…
ewrms gpsm iso psi akp cft ppft, rfa, rfc, f*** you.
waaah, big letters indeed, just to generate electricity by burning fuel and coal….
so with all the nonsence activities, just how can the staff concentrate on the real work of servicing the custormers..?
go check out for yourselves…
Just to justify che kalibs salary of i million per year.. holy s***.
ooh, by the way, there is another guy, also an accountant by name of *** ***** *****, much older than Che kalib… he dream of being the CEO instead of Che kalib, whom he called little boy.
*** ***** as he is foldly called, thinks he can create miracles with his special accounting skill and turning around company that makes losses.
So he keeps challenging Che Kalib who sent him a few years ago to **** to turn around this ailing subsidiary..
waah, he ruled (the state) like a king, sack union presidents saying they are in his way of turning around the company….
Then declared (the subsidiary) has turned around… After he was removed … to be returned to TNB to face an internal domestic inquiry, all discoverd that (the subsidiary) is still in the red up to now. (He) only used his creative accounting to show that (the subsidiary) had break even, by using accumulated govt fuel subsidy to balance the accounts..
He returned about 15 million of (the subsidiary) as a payment to TNB loan when all that money was govt subsidy money for fuel. So (the subsidiary) went back to bankruptcy stage…
The Industrial court hearing of the sack union presidents will be heard around august this year…. We will be loooking at (his) face when he meets the lawyers… see how good is this preacher when preaching to the courts.. he he he he
Complain about this comment
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
BTW, the latest fiasco these idiots have done was to sent their emergency team to built a fast tract transmission towers in Sabah to replace a fallen tower due to scrap metal thieves…
Tenaga talk so big about their emergency response team, and while they were stringing their emergency tower, this tower collapse and killed one worker, horrendously injured another four.
The losses of this fiasco was around 2 million, plus 5 broken lives..
so much for TNB’s expertise….
No wonder, more blackouts will be coming..
Complain about this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
2
Tell you what, I’ll pay you to eat the cake.
Complain about this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
ask the ceo of tenaga what is their budget for corporate gifts for ramadhan, which start from the (royalty) TO PM, MINISTERS, TO MINISTERS ETC , i tendered one particular year and the budget 4 years was more than rm 100k, this did not include the money spent on staff buka puasas everyday etc. it runs into millions. productivity during ramadhan also is rather low, go check it out, power failures and cabal breakdown during other months, this applies over the board to all govt depts, productivity drop in quality is in the tens of millions, well this is the result of a bumiputra policy implemented in the late 70′s by our very own MAMAK, WELL LIKE THE SAYING GOES YOU SOW WHAT YOU REAP.
Complain about this comment
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
I’ve a question regarding the salary. Is it normal for CEO salary to be that high? Could you provide us other CEO salary? This would allow us to compare the pay to others.
Complain about this comment
Like or Dislike:
2 
0
How about that, Genting Lim Kok Thay earns 86.5 million in 2007. It did not includes other benefits and allowance which may also come to millions.. IOI chairman, 45 millions, CIMB Nazir 10 millions, just a few example…
Complain about this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Rob the poor to feed the RICH. that is MALAYSIA INC.
a total cock-eyed approach on wealth distribution.
I don’t think even the Sultans are being paid this amount.
ALL GOD’S FREE GIFt TO MAN SHOULD BE GIVEN tO MAN AT A MINIMUM COST.ie water, electricity and basic food.(rice)
PrivAtisation by the Mahathir era has made a selected sector VERY RICH…and robbing the average and poor to feed the rich is privatisation..
THERE SHOULD NOT BE ANY WATER PRIVATISATION, OR ELECTRICITY PRIVATISATION..THESE ESSENTIAL NEEDS SHOULD BE CONTROLLED AND GIVEN TO THE RAKYAT AT MINIMAL COST. The GOVERNMENT SHOULD SEE TO IT THAT EVEN BASIC SHELTER SHOULD BE AVAILABLE FOR EVERY CITIZEN..NOT ONE CTIZEN OWNING 6 TO SEVEN HOUSES..AND RENTING IT OUT TO EXPLOIT THE POOR OR THE AVERAGE.
DIRECTORS OF COMPANIES SHOULD HAVE THEIR INCOME LIMITED UP TO AN
ACCEPTABPE LEVEL..AFTER THAT THEY SHOULD WORK ALTRUISTICALLY.
IF THEY DO NOT PERFORM..CHANGE THEM OR THEY SHOULD LEAVE AND LET ANOTHEER TAKE OVER..THIS IS WEALTH DISTRIBUTION TO THE NEXT BEST GUY.
ANY EXCESS FUNDS OR PROFITS SHOULD NOW BE USED FOR SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT UNDER COPORATE RESPONSIBLITY TO ENSURE THaT THE SOCIETY AT LARGE ENJOYS THE SUCESS OF THESE COMPANIES..
WE SHOULD NOT FOLLOW WHAT AMERICA IS DOING..WHERE THE FILTHY RICH TAKE MORE THAN THEY CAN SPEND..AND END UP BANKRUPTING A WHOLE NATION..AS CAN BE SEEN TODAY WITH THE COLLAPSE OF Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the AIG group..
this calls for more controls by the Central Bank and by legislating salaries given to CEO’s and Directors for big corporations. This is to prevent GREED.
ARE YOU HEARING ME????
Complain about this comment
Like or Dislike:
4 
0
Dear Anil,
Re-visiting your article.
How about an article or some figures on salaries and perks of Malaysian Ministers, Deputy Ministers, Chief Ministers, Members of Parliament, State Assemblymen, and Executive Councillors?
In addition, how about a poll on what the rakyat think for each category – (1) are they too highly paid? (2) should they take a pay-cut and what percentage? (3) how much do the paymasters (rakyat) want to pay them (citing salary scales like say RM1000 – 2000, 2000 – 3000, and so on; or a pay-scale like the civil servants depending on academic qualifications and experience)?
Can you imagine how much can then be channelled towards donations to the poor, and charities?
Complain about this comment
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
anil, get your eyes wide open first. yeah it’s true that tnb ceo’s salary is 1mil anually, but 1mil is totally underpaid when you compare with other glc ceos. hey cimb ceo made way even more than that, around 19mil annually.. and as the agreement with ipp, he’s fighting, with both of his hand tied.. get the clue? hey please dont simply condemn others blindly, how about get yourself a bigger spectacles?
Complain about this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
2
Anil, while UN reported Malaysia economy policy is well formulated and able to lower poverty rate among Malaysians from 42 % to 3% within 20 years, it was hailed as a very successful economy policy but UN does not know that umno’s BN managed to reach such a colorful goal due to the fact they are lowering the poverty line further down in their analysis which is no where near international standard for defining poverty.
Complain about this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
The first thing this CEO should do is make sure the electricity bills decrease to an affordable range that is won’t burden rakyat.
My monthly water bill is RM20+, electricity bill is RM150?!!
Opposition party should look into this matter!
Especially the oil price dropped so much.
Do he deserve that pay? Hell no!
Complain about this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
This is only a tip of iceberg. You can imagine how many GLC with this highly pay non-productive CEO and those CEO with cronies private company especially those blood sucking contractor. Our standard of living should not be like now. We should be well ahead of others developing country.
All of us please guess how long the peoples monies can withstand all these abuses and digging?
…STOP THEM BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.
Complain about this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
This is only a tip of iceberg. You can imagine how many GLC with this highly pay non-productive CEO and those CEO with cronies private company especially those blood sucking contractor. Our standard of living should not be like now. We should be well ahead of others developing country.
All of us please guess how long the peoples monies can withstand all these abuses and digging?
… STOP THEM BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.
Complain about this comment
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
Now with Che Kahib voted CEO of the year, expect his salary to be doubled 100% again.. IMO GLC CEOS should be barred from competing…
Complain about this comment
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
And THB is in debt, always. Their debts run into billions. TNB is also wasting money on a university it runs that makes no profit. Does TNB need a non-profit making university when there are already hundreds of colleges and universities in the country? TNB needs real corporate man to run it. All subsidaries that are not making money should be cut off. Let them stand on their own. Imagine, TNB having a university that is forever not making money and yet allowed to go on. This is ‘stupid’ management of people’s money. TNB is also paying fat salaries, bonuses and gratuities to its employees at the expense of people’s money. To find money the only acumen they have is to raise the electricity tariff. A school dropout can do this if appointed the CEO.
Complain about this comment
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
Dear Anil,
The rural Malays, like the Felda Peneroka and orang Ulu need to be made to understand that these are the reasons the people are so poor of. They need to change their destiny, by voting BN out, for a change.
Complain about this comment
Like or Dislike:
1 
1