There is hardly an employer or consumer organisation that has not come out against the new water and electricity rates.

The country has crossed this bridge before but this time the situation is a bit more complex and definitely presents the government, as owner of the energy corporation, with greater difficulties than in the first round of the rise in tariffs.

It can very well be said that the greater part of the problem is of the government's own making for repeatedly failing to take the social partners fully on board in its drive to bring the utility rates up to what they should be. Had it done so in both the first round and on this occasion the situation might have been different as, together, a way could have been possibly found to raise the rates in a manner that would not make the kind of impact the social partners are expecting.

It is difficult not to agree with the government that the time for subsidy is over. This is no longer an issue. But when the matter had been left pending for so many years and when the corporation has been in need of reforms aimed at greatly improving its efficiency, the logical way forward was for the government to bring about the change in rates gradually. As it happened, the way the government went about the exercise has suggested all along that, as The Times remarked only a few days ago, it did not think things out properly, as was the case of the first big rise in tariffs.

It is most surprising that, following the sharp criticism it received in the first round, it did not first seek to sound out the opinion of the social partners in the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development before going ahead with the second rise in tariffs. Now, following the strong pressure put up by the social partners, an urgent meeting of the council is planned to be held today when representatives of the Malta Resources Authority will be giving a presentation on the methodology used for the approval of the rates.

But is not this being done a bit too late in the day? Should not such an important matter have been discussed within the council well ahead of any timeframe the government might have had in mind for the rise in order to, first, assess the impact it would have on consumers and the different economic sectors and, second, to see what alternatives, if any, can be worked out to cushion the blow? This would help the corporation to gradually move into a new operational phase that will enable it to become a viable enterprise or as viable as it can possibly be in the short term given that, even with all the rises the government has introduced, it is still being subsidised.

In fact, even at this late stage, the social partners are hoping that today's meeting would lead to concrete decisions. With revenue down in the wake of the economic slowdown, the government is facing new economic pressures but these are unlikely to be eased through rash decisions, which, as explained by the industry's representative body, could well hit Malta's business attractiveness and expansion plans. When the economic situation is still so difficult, this is the last thing the island needs. Today's meeting presents an opportunity for the social partners to find the right solution to the problem.