Hotelier denies suggesting 'spreading' of tariffs burden

The Prime Minister named hotelier Winston Zahra as the man who had suggested "spreading out" the burden of the new energy bills on businesses rather than remove the capping system protecting big industry.

Dr Gonzi slipped in Mr Zahra's name during a radio show on RTK Radio yesterday when he mentioned him as the person who suggested "spreading out the tariffs".

When contacted, however, Mr Zahra, who is also vice president of the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association, said that he had suggested that the removal of the capping for the 25 top companies should be phased out with Enemalta continuing to subside them and "definitely not passed on to other companies or households".

He stressed that none of the 25 companies were hotels, pointing out that his suggestion was not made out of self interest. "A critical part of the suggestion" was that he did not want to see savings made by the companies passed on as a burden to other consumers.

However, when the government revised the water and electricity tariffs it announced that the removal of the subsidy to big companies (which had bills capped at €50,000) was to be staggered over three years and the burden was effectively shifted onto smaller businesses.

When asked about the apparent contradiction in the two versions, a spokesman for the Prime Minister said the principle to phase in the tariffs, as suggested by Mr Zahra, was accepted for those companies that were mostly impacted "in order to protect the jobs".

But the spokesman added that Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt had done the workings and decided on how the burden would be spread. The Times sent questions to the ministry over the matter yesterday afternoon but no response was forthcoming by the time of printing.

Both the old tariffs and the new regime proposed by the government have been strongly criticised by the social partners. Today 15 trade unions will be protesting against the hike in water and electricity rates.

Speaking with this scenario as background, Dr Gonzi yesterday mentioned Mr Zahra as he was making a point that the government was always willing to listen to what people had to say about the tariffs.

Dr Gonzi added that after the original tariffs had been issued at the end of last month, he had accepted a request for further talks by Mr Zahra and Chamber of Commerce vice president Stefano Mallia.

During this meeting, he said, Mr Zahra came up with a solution to help reduce the burden of the tariffs.

But the hotelier insisted that during the long meeting with the employer bodies "it was very clear that the government was not willing or able to reduce the proposed tariffs".

Mr Zahra elaborated that, with the originally proposed tariffs, there were a number of companies that would have seen increases from 10 per cent to 85 per cent in their bills.

During the meeting he suggested that those 25 companies who were going to see increases of over 40 per cent pay a maximum 40 per cent increase in the first year.