The Authority for Electricity Regulation announced on Wednesday the implementation of a new tariff system for large government, commercial and industrial customers. The new tariff, which stems from a decision of the Council of Ministers, will come into effect from January 1, 2017 for existing large customers that consume more than 150 megawatt-hours (MWh) per year, and with immediate effect for new customers falling in this category. Announcing the new tariffs at a press briefing held at the Authority’s headquarters, Qais Saud al Zakwani, Executive Director, said the new tariff scheme reflects the actual cost of providing electricity to large customers. It will target an estimated 10,000 existing government, commercial and industrial customers that constitute less than one per cent of all registered customers, but consume in excess of 30 per cent of total electricity supply, and are allocated 20 per cent of total subsidy. (Oman observer)   Our view: It a negative news for industrial names as this will have negative impact on profitability starting 2017. However, most industrial names are using Natural gas as their feedstock, hence, we believe the electricity subsidy cut will only have marginal impact as it is largely used for electrification of offices and only partly for production process. We will provide a detailed analysis on its impact shortly. (Sameer Kattiparambil)