Tariffs: Government 'playing with figures' - MLP

The MLP this morning accused the government of ‘playing with numbers’ in the utility tariffs issue.

It observed that while the government had initially said it would be reducing the burden of the new tariffs by €60 million it emerged late on Sunday that the reduction was of €50 million. When the MLP pointed out the €10m discrepancy yesterday, the government was caught on the wrong foot and said the difference was due to to the funds it gave Enemalta to cover its public service obligations, such as street lighting.

Although the government said that this PSO was included in the documents handed out to the MCESD, those documents actually gave a figure of €7.8 million, the MLP observed, leaving a shortfall of €2.2 million which the government had not explained.