Government financial compensation for last year's increase in electricity and water tariffs is expected to be given to practically all households this month, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech said this evening.

The compensation was promised in the Budget speech last November and applies to all households other than the high-end consumers (calculated as being 3% of the total).

Mr Fenech had announced in the speech said that in order to ease the impact of the power tariffs, the government would give compensation of €30 per household plus €25 for each person, such that a single person household would receive €55.

He had projected the cost of this once-only measure to be €10 million. However in a Radio 101 interview this evening he said the cost for the government had now been revised to €11 million.

The cheques, he said, are currently being printed.

The compensation is separate from the energy benefit given to 28,000 low income families.