Gatt defends tariffs

In a rebuttal of industry's criticism of the new electricity charges, Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt today says that 32 hotels whose utility costs were subsidised will actually make savings under the new regime.

Writing in The Times (see back page), Dr Gatt gives a breakdown of the government's estimates for the private sector and says that 90 of the firms whose bills were previously capped will either see a fall in their costs or will not pay more than €1,000 to €10,000 above their present bills.

The next highest consumers will see increases of between €10,000 and €100,000 per year while 20 companies will have to fork out €100,000 to €1,000,000 and a remaining three companies will see their bills go up by more than €1,000,000.

The troubled chipmaker ST Microelectronics and the Malta Freeport are thought to be among these three companies.

The article comes in response to a united front formed by the social partners who claim that the new tariffs will hurt business and cause job losses. The final charges were announced earlier this week and will be introduced retroactively from October 1.

Dr Gatt insists that taxes should not be used to subsidise consumption but rather to subsidise efforts to protect the environment through energy-saving measures.