​H.E. Suhail bin Mohamed Al Mazrouei, Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, said before the Federal National Council members yesterday that the decision to change the electricity tariff for farm owners was taken by the UAE Cabinet, stressing that the government dealt with this file as a national security matter aimed at achieving a set of strategic goals.
Al Mazrouei said that the new strategy is based on subsidizing water and cancelling electricity subsidies, which will contribute to providing arable water for farm owners to serve the quality of their agricultural products on the one hand and to provide sustainable solutions to food security in the UAE on the other hand. He pointed out that EtihadWE offered a price for water similar to the price offered to the citizen’s house, which is 1.5 fils, bearing in mind that the cost of production is not less than 3.5 fils on average per gallon, urging farm owners to apply to connect the water network to their farms, especially since the total number of applications received by the company so far does not exceed 300 one out of 9,000 Farm.
He added: "Since 2020, Etihad Water and Electricity Company has started investing nearly 1.5 billion dirhams to extend the existing water network, part of which will be allocated to delivering water to farm owners, stressing that the decision to increase the electricity tariff was taken based on the results of comprehensive studies with a directive to reduce other fees in return, such as the electricity connecting fees that have been reduced by 50% which means that the government has distributed the subsidy between water and electricity in a balanced manner.