Compensation for water and electricity hike

The higher water and electricity tariffs to be introduced on January 1 will be mitigated by a one-off bonus ranging between €55 for a single-person household to €205 for a seven-person household.

Admitting that higher water and electricity rates "placed a burden" on families, the Finance Minister said the government would be forking out €10 million in direct financial assistance.

The compensation would be paid to families that do not consume more than 10,000 units of electricity.

The government estimates that almost 97 per cent of families would benefit from the measure.

The new higher tariffs are still a mystery since the government did not say by how much they would increase when passing them on to the Malta Resources Authority for approval.

Even so, the Finance Minister said the Budget measure was intended so that "as much as possible" a large number of families will not see increases in their bills.

A further €7 million was allocated for the Energy Benefit for the 28,000 low-income families.

Within the same context, the Finance Minister said a reserve fund of €2.5 million was established to aid companies that may face difficulties. The government would continue to subsidise the Water Services Corporation to the tune of €14.6 million for sewage-related operations, which would mitigate the need to introduce higher water tariffs.

People started paying higher water and electricity bills last year, with the contentious tariffs backdated to October 2008.

The original proposals in 2008 meant that the majority of households would be forking out between €76 and €270 more every year than they used to pay when the surcharge was 95 per cent.

In April this year electricity tariffs were decreased by 22 per cent for households and by up to 26 per cent for commercial and industrial consumers.

However, the new tariffs are expected to be even higher than those of October last year with consumers forking out the bill for costlier oil and investment in a new smart metering system and sewage plants.

Energy compensation

(family size: amount)

1: €55

2: €80

3: €105

4: €130

5: €155

6: €180

7: €205