THE ACT Opposition will vote against the Government’s $32million “Energy Efficiency (Cost of Living) Improvement Bill”, saying the Bill could force Canberra residents to pay for big businesses’ electricity upgrades.

The Bill, will require electricity retailers, such as ActewAGL, to provide households with subsidised or free energy efficiency upgrades to their homes, helping to reduce cost of living pressures on household budgets and reducing carbon emissions in the ACT.

About 70,000 households will be affected, providing ongoing energy bill savings of up to $300, per annum, by 2015.

However, Opposition Leader Zed Seselja said the Bill is “not a cost of living help, it is a cost of living hit”.

“It’s a tax masquerading as a policy, which will cost Canberrans $1 million a month and there is absolutely nothing stopping most of it going to businesses which can use the subsidy to increase profit,” Mr Seselja said.

“In a briefing to the Opposition, the Government could not rule out that three quarters of the subsidies will go to big business, not the Canberrans who will pay for it.

“So when big businesses decide they want to save money by upgrading its heating and cooling system, it is Canberrans who will have to foot the bill to subsidise this initiative. Regular households, the main contributors of this scheme, would receive little of the benefits but will pay the price.

“Today’s bill is yet another inequitable ACT Labor scheme which will increase electricity prices for everyone but benefit few, just as we saw with the solar feed-in tariff.”