More families are able to get by without crossing the threshold of 2,000 units of electricity – and are thus paying the lowest rates available, Energy Minister Joe Mizzi said.
He did not give the figures for 2012, but did say in reply to a parliamentary question posed by MP David Agius that the percentage of those staying within the first band had increased by 4.3 per cent by 2017.
ARMS has been under fire recently over the billing frequency and whether the allocation of 2,000 units was being fairly spread across the bills – but Mr Mizzi stressed that consumers received 5.7 bills a year in 2017, compared with 6.1 in 2012.
Mr Mizzi also expressed surprise at the current controversy, insisting that the billing frequency system in place had not changed since October 2008.
What has changed is that meters can now be read automatically – meaning that bills based on actual readings can be issued every two months. However, those who still have their meters read manually get a bill based on estimated consumption every two months, and then a bill based on actual readings every six months – and he again stressed that this had not changed since 2013.
There are currently 15.6 per cent of electricity consumers, and 22.2 per cent of water consumers who still need to have their readings taken manually, according to the parliamentary questions.
The Consumers’ Association wants to see a change in regulations, saying that consumers were being cheated out of lower tariffs on water and electricity.
Association president Benny Borg Bonello said it was told that the calculation of the cost of units was done according to law.
“If this is the case, we are calling for a change in the law,” he told The Sunday Times of Malta.
He was also asked about punitive measures taken against consumers who did not settle their bills and said that ARMS was doing all it could to reach agreements allowing people to pay by instalments.
Those who remained in arrears and refused to reach an agreement with ARMS had their supply cut off. But this figure was also going down, he said, from 68 per cent in 2015 to 24 per cent last year.