Most households paying €120-€240 more a year

The vast majority of households will see their yearly utility bill increase by between €120 and €240, according to an impact analysis of the new tariffs carried out by the Malta Resources Authority.

Around 32,000 households will see their bills go up by between €120 and €160 a year while a further 46,000 households will experience increases of between €160 and €200.

Some 28,000 households can expect to see hikes of over €240 while another 42,000 could expect yearly expenditure on water and electricity to rise by between €240 and €280.

All increases are over and above what consumers had been paying with the 95 per cent surcharge.

The impact analysis has also established that around 56 per cent of households should benefit from the eco-reduction on electricity consumption on every bill while 24 per cent would only benefit "sometimes". A further 20 per cent of households will receive no eco-reduction at all.

The analysis was presented yesterday to the 11 unions that are still contesting the bills. The meeting lasted just over two hours.

Significantly, the regulator said its technical analysis is "more accurate" than the one which auditing firm KPMG had done for Enemalta in terms of the figures for single-person households and accounts for places where no people live.

This very point was one of the issues raised by economist and Labour MEP candidate Edward Scicluna, who argued that the government had included garages, for instance, in the list of households which were meant to benefit from an eco-reduction under the new regime for utility bills.

The authority reached its conclusions after a detailed analysis of real invoices issued to households for the period April 2006 to December 2007. The invoices were those for actual meter readings rather than estimates.

An MRA official reluctantly admitted that Enemalta's auditors, KPMG, had the possibility of conducting a similar detailed exercise before coming up with the tariffs. However, he insisted the exercise required "particular skill".

In analysing the impact of the social assistance vouchers granted to needy families, the MRA only calculated the impact on a typical four-person household. In this case, most eligible families will benefit from a 20 per cent reduction in their bill, according to the authority.

The regulator admitted that a similar exercise would need to be carried out for single person households in order to establish the impact of the vouchers on pensioners. Single person households are more likely to be inhabited by pensioners.

ksansone@timesofmalta.com