The energy regulator will have a lot of explaining to do on why it approved the new water and electricity tariffs at a meeting for social partners today.
Guns will be trained on the Malta Resources Authority during a meeting of the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development and, in the words of the director general of the Malta Employers' Association, Joe Farrugia, the regulator "has to explain why the commercial rates are among the highest in Europe".
But employers will also be told by unions not to use the threat of job losses to obtain what they want.
The meeting was urgently requested by social partners after the authority approved the higher tariffs on December 14. The MRA will give them a presentation and Finance Minister Tonio Fenech is also expected to attend.
"We will definitely be asking for more transparency and accountability from the regulator," Mr Farrugia said yesterday.
He did not reveal what proposals the MEA would be putting forward, insisting that, "as a matter of courtesy", the organisation would unveil its proposals first during the meeting.
However, Mr Farrugia said the higher tariffs risked creating a wage-rise spiral that was very dangerous for businesses, especially during a recession.
The prospect of job losses fuelled by higher utility tariffs has been held out by various businessmen but the Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin's general secretary, Gejtu Vella was not taken in by what he described as their threats.
"We will not accept a discussion based on the premise that jobs will be lost because that is a threat. It is a blanket statement, which the UĦM does not accept," Mr Vella said.
If there were businesses feeling the pinch, he added, "we should discuss individual solutions".
Vince Farrugia, the director of the Chamber for Small and Medium Enterprises - GRTU, has the energy regulator in his sights.
"We do not expect to determine what the tariffs should be but we do expect the authority to explain on what basis it accepted them and how it verified the information supplied by Enemalta," Mr Farrugia said.
For the GRTU, a more important issue is the evaluation of the budgetary stimulus package for small and medium enterprises.
"In view of the new tariffs, which are much higher than what the Prime Minister had promised, the package has to be re-visited because it is not enough," Mr Farrugia said.
The General Workers' Union will also be presenting a set of proposals during the meeting but general secretary Tony Zarb remained tight-lipped when asked.
Meanwhile, on the eve of today's meeting, controversy raged as One News reported that the MCESD executive secretary Joe Montebello had resigned in December over differences with council chairman Sonny Portelli on the way social partners were being treated on the issue of water and electricity tariffs.
The allegation was denied by the MCESD. It said the executive secretary submitted his resignation on December 9, five days before the energy regulator published the approved tariffs.
ksansone@timesofmalta.com