ARMS Ltd has infuriated non-Maltese EU citizens by its policy of a two-tier water and electricity consumption tariff scheme and a general complaint over its attitude has been registered with Brussels under reference: CHAP (2011) 00735.

ARMS appears to be hiding behind Enemalta’s archives prior to 2010 tariff revision for a confusing situation of non-Maltese citizens either having a residential or domestic tariff.

This is not good enough, as this EU subsidy is provided to ARMS for all EU citizens and not to have two tariffs for ARMS to decide who should be a recipient, which I consider a violation of EU law.

One has to ask how this subsidy – which is specifically given to Malta by the EU – is implemented. Is it based on an advanced annual fixed grant for the figures of EU citizenship population within Malta or is it administered retrospectively on figures submitted by ARMS of its estimates of EU citizenship at the end of every financial year?

The core of the problem appears to be the Government’s attitude of issuing ID cards only recognising Malta residents, with the letter M and the rest of the population under the letter A being Alien. This does not distinguish between other EU residents and the rest of the world.

May I suggest therefore a letter E for EU citizens, which would make it easier for all EU residents to get the EU subsidy to which they are entitled.