TNB’s Plan to Reduce Permit Application Delays by 80 Percent

Abstract

Malaysia advanced nine notches to the 15th spot among 190 economies worldwide in the “World Bank’s Doing Business 2019 Report” based on the latter’s ranking for business regulations and ease of doing business. In the area of electricity supply, the same report states that Malaysia is ranked fourth globally with the cost for businesses to obtain electricity at only 26 percent of income per capita versus an average of 625 percent in the East Asia and Pacific Region. Despite achieving fourth place globally in the World Bank’s “Getting Electricity” ranking, one of the major challenges faced by Tenaga National Berhad (TNB) is its inability to complete major projects on time due to difficulty in obtaining road excavation permits from local authorities and government agencies. This paper will share the list of obstacles faced and what TNB has done as well as what it will be doing in order to ensure that TNB achieves its goal of reducing permit delays by 80 percent. The utility company has also initiated an online permit management system in DBKL in June 2018 to manage permit applications effectively. Without permits from the local authority, TNB’s projects are at a standstill. Therefore, the importance of soft skills aided by new innovation and mobility solutions should not be underestimated