A recent reduction to a SaskEnergy rate will be negated if a carbon tax is implemented, the Saskatchewan government says.

On November 1 the Crown corporation cut their commodity rate of $3.65 per Gigajoule to $2.95 per Gigajoule, which is the lowest rate they've offered since 1999.

Minister responsible for SaskEnergy Bronwyn Eyre said she was happy with the rate reduction but said the cut won't matter if the Justin Trudeau government is able to impose the carbon tax.

"Of course it (the rate reduction) will be short-lived if the carbon levy by the Trudeau government is allowed to stand and imposed on every farm, business, and residential customer in the province that uses natural gas," she said. "That's the unfortunate thing that the one cancels out the other."

Another commodity rate reduction is tentatively scheduled for April 1 by SaskEnergy to go from $2.95 per Gigajoule to $2.65 per Gigajoule if given the go-ahead by the Saskatchewan Rate Review Panel and the Saskatchewan government.

Both of the reductions (November 1 and April 1) would become undone if a carbon tax is implemented.

But in late October the federal government said the average Saskatchewan household would get $600 in rebates from the carbon tax.

"Our opinion would be that is a lot of voodoo economics," said Eyre. "The rebate is something quite different and will apply differently than this one for one cancellation of the SaskEnergy rate decrease."

SaskEnergy is also looking to raise their delivery service rate by 3.7% on April 1, but the cut to commodity rates will overtake the increase to the delivery service and provide about a 9% decrease to total bills.

Erye said the overall decrease by SaskEnergy would save about $80 per year for the average household, adding the average residential natural gas bill would rise again by $100-$120 annually if the carbon tax goes into effect.