Families will save €27 a year

The revised energy bills should mean an average annual drop of €27 a year for the majority of households when compared to the original tariffs proposed by the government, according to an audit report leaked to The Times.

The fate of the latest deal struck over the energy bills is still in the balance as most of the unions in the bloc that negotiated the latest revision are still questioning the announced final version.

The figures showing the reduction were never published because the Malta Resources Authority is verifying the audit report drawn up by KPMG, the same audit firm which estimated how much the originally-announced bills would cost people on average. The report was seen by The Times and its workings are being reproduced in the tables on page 5.

When compared to the rates published by the Infrastructure, Transport and Communications Ministry on October 23, it emerges that one-person households will see their bills cut by an average of €10.95 a year over original proposals while the bills for two- and three-person households will go down on average by €22.94 and €21.62 respectively.

Four- and five-person households should see a decrease of €45.57 and €34.69.

The changes come on top of the 95 per cent surcharge already in place.

In fact, according to government estimates, a two-person household which consumes between 2,000 and 3,000 units annually until October paid €278.58 while now it will be paying about €403. Similarly, a three-person household that consumes between 3,000 and 4,000 units a year paid €430.12 until October and will see its bill to €549.68.

According to the Labour Party's workings, the new rates are equivalent on average to a surcharge of 185 per cent. The latest proposals were made public last week following a marathon meeting the Prime Minister had with unions in the wake of protests against the tariffs.

Following the talks with the unions, the government announced that an amendment to the service charge on residences will come into effect on January 1 rather than this October as originally announced. This will mean a further subsidy of about €2.3 million.

The amended proposals increase the eco discount on family households from 10 to 15 per cent and the threshold on the yearly discounted units from 1,500 to 1,750 per person.

The discount for singles increased from 20 to 25 per cent and their threshold rose to 2,000 yearly units from the previous 1,500.

The government is estimating that this will extend the eco reduction scheme to another 15,394 families, bringing the number of families who fall under it to 138,333, or 73 per cent of the total number of Maltese families: 190,342.