Arms Ltd is receiving applications for the provision of temporary electricity services at the Armier and St Thomas Bay areas.

In adverts published in the newspapers today, the company said it reserved the right to remove such temporary electricity supplies with immediate effect and without any obligation or liability to compensation or damages to applicants when any other authority ordered the removal of the structures where services are located.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said last week that the installation of such electricity meters was part of a campaign to stamp out theft of electricity, since it was known that some people were taking supply from neighbours, or the street lighting system.

Opposition leader Simon Busuttil criticized the measure, which he said, legitimised illegal land grab.

Ironically, in February 2013 the Environment Planning Tribunal has slammed Enemalta for making a request to build an electricity substation outside the development zone to service illegal boathouses in St Thomas Bay.

The tribunal turned down an appeal by Enemalta to renew a permit for a substation and said it was not clear why the corporation was insisting on the need for this development.