For how long must humble citizens in this country suffer the linguistic incompetency of public utility providers? First we had the example of Maltapost who, after I complained in this paper about the confusing wording of their parcel collection notices, decided to change it. All credit to them.

Now we have the new ARMS Ltd (water and electricity bill collectors) who seem to have embarked on an attempt to grill early settlement of bills out of as many unknowing citizens as possible, through the usage of confusing wording on their bills.

On the front of the bill (and that is what, psychologically, most consumers limit themselves to read!) consumers are told that the amount due is payable within 15 days from the invoice date. Forget for the moment that the bill (using Maltapost's excellent services!) gets to your letterbox some five days after the invoice date, and so your 15 days are now down to 10 days.

But then on the back of the bill you are told that it is imperative that you pay within 45 days from the date of the invoice, and that if you don't they will then apply interest at six per cent as from after 15 days from the invoice date.

Now all of this attempt to confuse the minds of people, or squeezing out of people as many quick-as-possible settlements, could have been avoided if on the front of the bill the following simple words were to be included:

"You have up to 45 days from the date of this invoice within which you can pay this bill, but please note that we shall have to charge you interest at six per cent from date of invoice if you go over 45 days to settle it."

I volunteer to give ARMS Ltd a charges-free translation of this simple wording in Maltese, Italian, French and Arabic if, like Maltapost did, they are willing to see sense.