Unions yesterday declared victory in their battle against the new energy bills as confusion reigned last night over whether the regulator will be revising the bills that have already been issued.
While the 11 unions claimed to have been promised backdated adjustments by the Malta Resources Authority, the regulator categorically denied this.
In fact, MRA chairman Carmel Ellul told The Times that retroactivity is not even mentioned in the authority's law - raising doubts on whether the regulator has authority over these bills.
Still, the 11 unions, which have been battling the hike in electricity rates, stuck to their guns, insisting that during a meeting yesterday afternoon the MRA confirmed it would be calling on the government to retroactively change the tariffs, which were introduced on October 1.
In a statement issued late yesterday evening the MRA categorically denied that it had asked, or would ask, for any retroactive revisions or that it alluded to this with the unions. It said that in the next tariffs revision it would take into consideration the changes in Enemalta's costs, including oil prices and any fine-tuning of the tariffs.
When initially contacted by The Times over the unions' claim, Mr Ellul did not rule out retroactive changes. However, he later was unable to say whether the regulator was even able to call for backdated modifications.
Originally he said that if the authority found mistakes in the way the tariffs were calculated, they would need to discuss the way forward, adding that "retroactivity still has to be discussed".
But when asked to say specifically whether the authority could make the government refund consumers on old bills if mistakes were found, Mr Ellul was unable to answer. "The regulator regulates the future and not the past," he said.
The second conversation took place after the MRA issued an official denial of the unions' claims.
He could not give a clear answer on why the authority had not reviewed the tariffs before they came into force, saying only that the authority had regulated "under the conditions of the time".
Earlier, during a press conference, the teachers' union president John Bencini said the MRA confirmed it would revise the tariffs as from October 1 and called on people not to pay their bills until they receive a revised version.
"This was a saga full of confusion, with things done in an amateurish way. We expect those in power to give an account to the people who are receiving unjust bills," Mr Bencini said on behalf of all the unions.