Rating the new utility tariffs

The new water and electricity bills are official, just in time for Christmas. David Schembri went round Valletta and met a few people to gauge the reaction on the street.

Antoinette and Anthony Micallef, a retired couple, said they did not feel threatened by the hikes since the "government is supposed to give us a subsidy on the bills, so we're going to stay in the same situation as before". They were sympathetic with the government, saying that "whether we like it or not, prices have to reflect costs from abroad. The money has to come from somewhere".

Sean Briffa, an animator and drama teacher was going round distributing balloons while dressed as an elf to make ends meet. Last week, he started living on his own, so electricity and water tariffs have become a reality for him. "I'm already stretching myself financially as things are, so the more prices increase, the worse my situation is going to be," he said in between giving out balloons to children.

Vince Vassallo, retired, found the tariff rises "exaggerated", especially because he felt he was being charged too much for his garage, which he barely uses. "I was charged €320 for this place which I barely use; the meter reader didn't look at the metre and the bill was too expensive, even when considering previous bills." He thinks the hikes might have some financial justification but believes that in these decisions, policy makers "have to keep the social impact in mind".

Pierre Portelli, a designer, said the tariffs would affect him negatively, and ascribed part of the blame to "bad management on behalf of the government".

Norbert Bugeja, an academic works and studies in a UK university, so he doesn't pay bills in Malta. But he thinks the Maltese mentality is "too spoilt, taking things such as water and electricity for granted while ignoring the actual financial and environmental cost of it all." He felt the issue shouldn't be turned into a political battle but that tariffs should reflect the actual cost of things.

Georgina Portelli, a neuropsychologist, said she understood she had to pay for services but didn't expect to be paying "through the nose for them". She said these hikes were not due to the international situation but were mostly the effect of "bad management" by the government.