Deadline looms for Energy companies to outline Carbon Tax price cuts

This weekend is the deadline for energy companies to tell the consumer watchdog how much they will drop their prices due to the Carbon Tax repeal.

The carbon tax repeal legislation required energy companies to report to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission within 30 days on the Carbon Tax savings they would return to consumers.

The 30-day mark arrives on Saturday, after which retailers will also have to tell customers where they stand.

So far, the three big Electricity retailers, Origin, Energy Australia and AGL, are yet to release details, although Origin estimates an average reduction of 7% for its residential customers.

The retailer behind the current One Big Switch Group-Discounted Offers, Click Energy, has said it will pass back 100% of the tax and expects to give our members full details in the coming days.

Energy Australia has now released state-by-state average savings percentages and said: “We will notify customers in the coming weeks about the pricing changes. The carbon component will be removed from our residential and small business energy prices in September. Following the reprice, the backdated savings (for the period 1 July 2014 to the reprice date) will be provided as a credit on subsequent bills.”

Origin has said: “We’ve done some initial calculations and estimate that an average Origin household electricity bill^# will decrease by around 7 per cent. Households will also see reductions to their Origin natural gas bill. The actual savings you receive could be more or less depending on things like where you live, your tariff type and how much energy you use. … We’re working on the new carbon exclusive prices right now and we’ll confirm them in September.”

AGL has said: “We are currently working through the changes to our gas and electricity rates following the repeal of the carbon tax. All residential and small business customers will see a reduction to their energy rates due to the carbon tax repeal which will be backdated to 1 July 2014. … Our new rates will be lower than the current rates and we expect the changes will be implemented in August or September 2014, with the new rates backdated to 1 July 2014 for existing customers.”