Government to amend utility rates legal notice

Just one week after publishing the legal notice making the new utility rates official, the government will be amending it because it does not explain precisely how the eco reduction will be worked out.

A spokesman for the Prime Minister's Office confirmed that the legal notice will be clarified "to better reflect what Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi discussed during meetings he had with trade unions".

During the meetings, the parties agreed that the threshold for single people would increase to 2,000 units a year in order to benefit from a 25 per cent eco reduction.

With regard to households of more than one person, a threshold of 1,750 units will apply to each member, whereby the first 1,000 units will be charged at a 25 per cent eco reduction and the remaining 750 units 15 per cent.

But the legal notice issued on December 5 - at the same time that 11 unions were meeting auditors KPMG for a clarification on the government's latest tariff proposals - was not clear on how this eco reduction will be worked out. It laid down that people who consume more than 1,000 units but less than the 1,750 threshold would benefit from a 15 per cent eco reduction, thus eliminating the 25 per cent reduction.

This discrepancy prompted the Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin to ask the OPM to clarify the discrepancy between what the unions had agreed with the Prime Minister during their meetings and what was written in the legal notice, which is, of course, what is binding.

The General Workers' Union, the Malta Union of Teachers and the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses were among the 11 unions that asked for a clarification meeting over discrepancies between what they had discussed and what was contained in the government's proposals.

The UĦM and the Confederation of Maltese Trade Unions were quick to hit out at dissenting unions, accusing them of nit-picking.

The recent tit-for-tat exchange between unions continues to confirm the schism that has developed between them at a time when everyone thought that their show of joint force in opposing the water and electricity tariffs would lead to something concrete like a Trades Union Council.

But this was short-lived.

The unions that are still opposing the tariffs yesterday issued a statement saying the UĦM and the CMTU had backtracked from their original position by asking for clarification on the legal notice, which they had originally said they agreed with. They appealed to the confederation and its affiliates - which includes the UĦM - to continue working in their members' best interests.

The government spokesman said the aim of the 1,750-unit threshold is to encourage families to make better use of energy, utilise energy-efficient materials and appliances, invest in alternative means to generate energy and, ultimately, preserve the environment for present and future generations.

The spokesman also confirmed that if a person surpasses the 1,750 unit threshold by even just one unit, the eco reduction will not apply.