Utilities charge for Catholic schools unfair

Austin Gatt, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Communications, states, with reference to the proposed hike in water and electricity tariffs, that "What we consume, we have to pay for." (October 7).

Yet, I find the fact that charging a commercial rate to organisations offering a service for free to the local community, a contradiction of this statement.

Could someone, or maybe the minister himself, enlighten me on why Catholic schools, which provide an invaluable service, at a very cheap cost to the government, are charged commercial rates for the water and electricity they consume?

A school which does not charge students for the service it delivers is not a commercial entity and I cannot understand how it can be labelled as such. It is the parents of children who attend these schools who are paying these bills through the donations they give.

These parents are being forced to subsidise Enemalta as well as the telephone companies since this service is also charged at a commercial rate.

Dr Gatt also states that the government last year gave "€68 million to Enemalta in subsidies". I'm curious to know how much Church schools paid Enemalta last year and how much of that was an extra charge, or should I say subsidy, slapped on them because someone who has no idea what "commercial" means has labelled them so. This is nothing short of daylight robbery of the parents' hard-earned cash.