Consumers who have not received utility bills for a year living in dread

Some homeowners have not received a water and electricity bill for about a year and are now dreading the amount they will have to pay.

The Sunday Times received reports from people who have not received a bill for months, sometimes even a year.

“This is ridiculous. The last bill I received was in October last year and it covered the period until July 2009. Now I am expecting to receive a bill of about €1,000 which I will have to pay in 30 days,” one man told The Sunday Times.

“I hope the bill doesn’t arrive at the same time as other bills like insurance and the children’s school fees... At least there should be the option of paying this huge bill over a number of months.”

The agency usually gives consumers 45 days to pay their bills after which a six per cent interest rate kicks in.

Even if the agency were to recognise the particular circumstances of this case, the man is dreading the prospect of spending an afternoon in a queue for which ARMS, the agency handling utility bills, has become notorious.

“I’m just hoping that once the bill arrives, it will include an option to stagger the payment, so at least I can avoid the queue.”

The man said he had sent an e-mail to Arms, the agency set up by government at the beginning of the year to handle utility bills, but the only response he received was an automated reply in his inbox.

In a letter sent to The Sunday Times (page 17), Jean-Marc Camilleri also vented his frustration at a similar situation.

He has not received a bill since September last year despite making several calls to the Arms helpline. “Where is my bill?,” he said.

A spokesman for the finance ministry said the installation of new billing management software required a lengthy data migration process. This caused “minor issues”, which created a backlog in bills.

These issues had now been solved and Arms was issuing over 25,000 bills a week, the spokesman said, adding that 258,572 bills had been issued between June and August this year.

Last July, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech told Parliament that utility bills would go back to being issued every two months once the current backlog was overcome.

The burden on the consumer caused by billing delays was recently raised by Labour leader Joseph Muscat during a radio interview.

He recounted the story of a woman, whose husband was sick, and who had spent the summer indoors to save money since she was concerned about the payment of the unknown bill.

Dr Muscat also made fun of the name ‘Arms’ saying one could joke that it was “arms (weapons) against the people”.