Enemalta corporation is owed Lm28 million by consumers, including Lm11 million from the current cycle of bills, chairman Robert Ghirlando said.
Speaking with The Times, Prof. Ghirlando said: "We are owed Lm17 million by late payers. This includes some Lm5 million owed us by the shipyards; but I hasten to add that we have started making some progress with the `yards, in the sense that they are now paying current bills while the old bills are offset against work which we place with them. So finally we have started to see a decrease in the sum owed us by the `yards."
He said Enemalta was considering new policies that could solve the problem of outstanding electricity bills, especially in the case of commercial premises when there was a change of ownership.
To date new owners had been bound to settle any outstanding bills related to their premises, but it was announced in parliament last week that the corporation was considering the introduction of a new system where a `new` electricity service would be supplied to the new owners, while the former owners would remain liable for the payment of outstanding bills.
Prof Ghirlando said the corporation had an annual turnover of some Lm50 million from the supply of electricity.
He explained that with much effort the corporation was managing to keep heavy power consumers within set credit periods. Such heavy consumers included industrial concerns, hotels, big retail outlets, government departments and restaurants.
He said 70 per cent of domestic users settled their bills promptly, some 20 per cent had fallen one bill behind, while the remaining 10 per cent were a problem. These also included small businesses that are hard up for cash.
Unfortunately, he lamented, the nature of the product did not help, as it could not yet be paid on delivery.
"Let me compare it with sales of our other products: gas and petroleum. Here we can control our debtors very easily. When a client turns up for more supplies, it is very easy not to give him what he wants if he has not paid up. But not so with electricity."
Furthermore, any arrangement of payment terms regarding the power supply must include payment of current consumption.
Then there is the monopoly issue, he explained.
"Because we are the only supplier, it is not easy to say that we shall cut off supply. Obviously in a liberalised market, I could easily refuse to supply electricity to anybody who does not pay his bills or, worse, who steals electricity. Not so in a monopoly.
"This does not mean that we do not suspend supply. In fact we suspend supplies on a daily basis, although many defaulters pay up as soon as they realise that we are serious about the suspension, or come and pay up immediately after we suspend."
Prof. Ghirlando said the corporation has stepped up its fight against theft of electricity through a media campaign, more inspections and tightening of its internal procedures.
"We have also started installing electronic meters which are more difficult to tamper with. In our last annual report, it was reported that our losses had gone down from 19 per cent to 17 per cent." He said that losses of up to five per cent were considered normal. The rest was theft and wrong billing.
He said the corporation was preparing to issue a tender for prepayment meters, which could be used, for example, in the case of consumers who regularly settled their bills late.
"Besides fighting theft, we are also checking for incorrect billing. For example, we have had cases of meters that were not read for a long time and bills were based on estimates. Sometimes these estimates turned out to be too low. That meant that Enemalta`s losses were made out to be higher than they actually were, and when matters were rectified, consumers received higher bills than they expected.
" Obviously, it is in our interest and in that of the consumers that meters are read regularly."
He said that the question of separating power and water meter reading and billing was a constant issue, but it was felt it would be a waste of resources to have two sets of meter readers.