The Malta Labour Party yesterday stuck to its guns over the proposed energy tariffs, saying the new bills will be akin to a 194% surcharge over current bills.
In a statement explaining its workings, the party said families will see bills rising from anything between €2.50 and €4.75 every week on electricity, and between €0.80 and €2.00 on water, a total increase of between €3.30 and €6.75 per week.
Labour said the government had compounded its financial deficit by employing over 1,000 new public sector workers in the six months before the March election, and overshooting its ministerial budgets by some €70 million in a pre-electoral spending binge.
Labour said government’s proposal to the social partners back in October was to recoup €305.4 million from consumers, €60 million less from what it actually needed to finance Enemalta’s generation of electricity.
It said the government had not been transparent in revealing the price of oil on which it had based its calculations, to arrive at a cost of production of €365.4 million.
The MLP said government’s calculations were ignoring consumers of less than 1,000 units of electricity or zero-person households, such as garages. “The government is not saying clearly what the increase in tariffs will be, in percentage terms,” the party said.
Labour said that, when excluding consumers of less than 1,000 units, the increase in tariffs is of 51%.
The party said the total increase in water tariffs collected by the government will be €13.2 million, from the total €42 million increase in energy and water tariffs.
“Maltese and Gozitan families will see government take back €40 million which were awarded in income tax cuts, €28 million, and children’s allowances of €11.6 million,” the party said.
The party added that 87% of businesses, those consuming less than 20,000 units, will see their energy tariffs go up by 58.5%, or €31.5 million more. “This increase will have to be borne by consumers since local producers will end up increasing prices. It will mean a loss in competitiveness for Maltese and Gozitan businesses.”
Once again, the MLP accused the government of not involving the Malta Resources Authority in the regulation of the tariff structure, saying the government had not denied Joseph Muscat’s claims on Monday.
“Tonio Fenech said there is no country where the regulator asks for an impact study on the prices of utilities. This is not true. In the UK, the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets not only asks for these studies, but it actually issues guidelines on how these have to be carried out.”
It said government was also trying to divert attention from Muscat’s proposals, when it said the alternating tariffs for day and night consumption were already in place.
Only industrial consumers have alternating tariffs, the party said.
The MLP said its proposal to have the Reverse Osmosis plants work at night was also valid, since these work 24 hours a day at 50% of their capacity. Labour said its proposal is to have the substantial part of production take place at night so as to increase water production by night, and reduce it by day.
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