Towngas says it plans to raise its basic tariff by 4.4 percent to 27.2 cents per megajoule starting from August 1.

In a government paper submitted to the Legislative Council, the company was quoted as saying that about 70 percent of its residential customers will pay no more than HK$10 extra for their gas bill each month.

Towngas said the tariff hike, which would be the first since August 2019, is needed to cope with the increasing operating costs due to inflation and future investment expenditure.

The maintenance charge for residential customers, meanwhile, will remain unchanged at HK$9.5 a month.

Some 50,000 households, including elderly and low income families under the company's concession schemes, will not be subject to the tariff hike.