Unions ask people to take their time to pay utility bills

The 11 unions opposing the water and electricity tariff increases have called on the people to pay after 45 days of the bill's date and on the actual readings and not on estimates.

The tariffs have recently been reduced following approval of Enemalta proposed revised rates by the Malta Resources Authority, some days ago. The new rates are backdated to April 1.

The unions said in a statement that the new rates still showed that the regulator was not understanding the people's hardships for they were still a burden on families, particularly small ones.

The small reduction in the rates came about because of their continuous pressure with the Prime Minister continuously refusing to meet them. They said that had all unions remained united, the reductions could have been bigger.

The minimal reductions were on the astronomical tariffs introduced on October 1 when the cost of oil was at its lowest levels, the uions said.

They said that the newly approved rates were still unjust and called on the regulator to stop treating the people as imbeciles. They pointed out that the cost of water had not been reduced even though the cost of oil, which was used to operate the water purification plants, had gone down.