Villagers Protest High Electricity Charges
About 200 people from Siem Reap’s Angkor Chum district protested outside the district governor’s office on Friday, calling for private electricity company Duong Narin to lower its prices and asking the state electricity authority to connect to their area, protesters said yesterday. The residents of Tasom commune asked that Duong Narin lower the price of its power from 3,400 riel, about $0.87, to 1,500 riel, about $0.37, per kilowatt-hour. “We can’t afford to pay our electric bills because they’re so expensive and the meter is incorrect,” said Thorn Chamroeun, 42, who was among the protesters. Duong Narin, owner of the private electricity provider, said that he could not lower the prices, which he claimed were set by the Electricity Authority of Cambodia, (EAC).
