Minister insists: power bills have to be paid on time

Public Investments Minister Austin Gatt insisted in parliament yesterday that Enemalta and the Water Services Corporation would apply existing regulations to ensure that longstanding unpaid bills were settled and future bills were paid promptly. He said that while the corporations were making allowances for social cases who may not be able to pay up promptly, such people should also do their small part.

"We cannot continue to have a situation where bills are issued at the minimum rates for such people, and this little is still ignored. We will allow breathing space for those who have fallen back on their payments, but from now on those who want power and water must pay their bills within 45 days."

Dr Gatt was replying to questions in parliament after Enemalta and the WSC launched a campaign to collect Lm23.8 million in longstanding unpaid bills.

He explained that the current situation was unsustainable. Some Lm18 million were owed to Enemalta in bills exceeding Lm100 which were outstanding for more than 60 days. The amount would reach some Lm22 million when one considered bills under Lm100.

Should all bills be settled within the 45 day period provided by regulations, Enemalta would save Lm1.5 million in operating costs every year.

"Some 90 per cent of customers pay their bills on time. It is not fair that because of the defaulting 10 per cent, those who pay their bills regularly are facing risks on the sustainability of current rates."

The minister said the system the corporations would use to recover the debts already existed but had hardly ever been applied.

He explained that clients had 45 days from the bills' issue date within which to pay up. From now on, once 60 days from the issue of the bills elapsed, defaulters would be charged eight per cent interest on their power bill and nine per cent for water. Furthermore, services would be disconnected immediately and reconnection would only happen when bills were settled and a reconnection fee of Lm60 paid.

Since some people could not settle their outstanding bills immediately, arrangements had been made with the banks so that payments could be made by instalments through bank standing orders.

The system would start being applied from late next week following an information campaign.

Dr Gatt said he was not against setoffs where companies were owed money from Enemalta or the WSC. But the funds due to those companies had to stem from those two corporations, not some other government department, he said.

On the social cases, Dr Gatt said those people declared as being social cases by the Department of Social Services did not pay rent on power and water meters and paid reduced rates on their consumption. Very few of those people had fallen back on their payments. In those cases too, he expected such people to do their own small part.

The system was allowing a breathing space for those who needed time to settle their overdue bills, but from now on, those who wanted water and electricity had to pay for it, however low their consumption.

The bottom line was that power generation cost money and somebody had to pay for it. If people were allowed not to pay for their supplies, others would have to cover the shortfall.

Dr Gatt said the corporations were considering changes to their billing system so that families could be better able to plan their outlay. The current system was that all meters were supposed to be read every quarter. This was never completed on time and bills were issued late. The possibility was for meters to be read once yearly and bills would be issued for one sixth of the amount every two months.

The minister said the government was not considering reducing street lighting as a measure to save money in view of the increased oil price. Street lighting cost some Lm1.2 million annually, he said. Some industries used double that amount.