5th October 2026 - 4 min read
If your home used between 601 and 800 kWh of electricity in September, you’ll get some money back on your October bill. Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) said that it will return the September charges you no longer need to pay as a credit. It’s automatic, so you don’t need to apply.
This follows the higher protection limit announced on 17 September. From 1 September to 31 December 2026, homes that use 800 kWh or less in a month don’t pay three charges. These are the Automatic Fuel Adjustment (AFA), the RM10 retail charge, and the 8% service tax.
The AFA is a fuel charge that changes monthly, and kWh is the unit your bill uses for electricity. The old limit was 600 kWh, and TNB says the higher one protects almost one million more homes.
The credit is for TNB’s home customers, which means households in Peninsular Malaysia. What you get depends on your September usage, according to TNB’s breakdown.
| Your September Usage | What You Get In October |
| 600 kWh or less | No credit, because you never paid these charges |
| 601 to 800 kWh | Credit for the AFA, the RM10 retail charge, and the 8% service tax |
| 801 kWh or more | No AFA or retail charge credit, but possibly a service tax adjustment |
If your home used more than 800 kWh, the AFA and the retail charge stay on your bill. Some of these homes may still get an adjustment for the 8% service tax under TNB’s eligibility rules, though the amount isn’t known yet.
A home using 800 kWh saves RM47.25 a month under the new limit, or about 13%. TNB gave this example at a media briefing on 18 September. The same home would have paid RM375.85 under the old rules [PDF], and now pays RM328.60.
If you used less than 800 kWh, you’ll save less, because the AFA and the service tax grow with every kWh you use. In our earlier breakdown, a 700 kWh home would save about RM39 a month.
The credit shows up as two lines on your bill. TNB’s English statement calls them “BILL ADJUSTMENT (SEPT 2026)” and “SERVICE TAX ADJUSTMENT (8.0 per cent) (SEPT 2026)”. In Bahasa Malaysia [PDF], they’re “PELARASAN BIL (SEP 2026)” and “PELARASAN CUKAI PERKHIDMATAN (8%) (SEP 2026)”.
Both lines are credits, so they reduce the amount you need to pay. If you used 601 to 800 kWh in September and can’t find either line, contact TNB through the myTNB app or at a Kedai Tenaga. Our TNB bill explainer shows where each charge appears on your bill.
Your October credit may be less than RM47.25, even if you used 800 kWh. The protection only covers electricity used from 1 September, and the credit is pro-rata, which means it’s split by time. For example, if your bill covers 15 August to 14 September, only the September days in it should count, so your credit would be smaller.
The protection runs until 31 December 2026, with no word yet on January 2027. In any month you stay at 800 kWh or below, you won’t pay the AFA, the retail charge, or the service tax, but all three apply again once you go over. For a home that usually uses close to 800 kWh, a few extra nights of air-conditioning can be enough to push it over.
TNB suggested keeping your daily usage below 25 kWh, which you can track in the myTNB app. By our own sum, 25 kWh a day over a 31-day month comes to 775 kWh, which leaves you 25 kWh of room before the limit.
TNB also suggested setting your air-conditioner between 24°C and 26°C and using its timer. For heavy appliances like washing machines, the Time-of-Use tariff charges less for electricity used at off-peak hours, such as weekday nights and weekends. It lowers what you pay per kWh but not how many kWh you use, so it won’t keep you under 800 kWh by itself.
If your home has a smart meter, you can also set a monthly Energy Budget in myTNB, and TNB recommends keeping it below RM328. RM328 is very close to the RM328.60 bill TNB gave for an 800 kWh home, so the budget can warn you before you cross 800 kWh.
Follow us on our official WhatsApp channel for the latest money tips and updates.
As a creative content writer, Eloise has covered finance, business, lifestyle topics, and even moonlights as a singer-songwriter outside of RinggitPlus. Her current interests are learning the best ways to optimise spending and credit card hacks to gain more airline miles.
Comments (0)