Updated 4.40pm - Added PN reply

People have been overcharged between €6 and €600 for their utility consumption over one year, according to a study of 100 families carried out by the Nationalist Party.

Deputy leader David Agius said at a press conference on Saturday afternoon that under a Labour government, people started receiving higher and more frequent bills.

“According to an exercise we carried out based on 100 bills, around 80 per cent of customers paid more than they should have. Discrepancies vary between €6 and €600,” he said, calling on the authorities to address the issue and refund those who have been overcharged.

The PN assessed households' electricity consumption after Adrian Delia had urged party supporters to pass on their bills for analysis. 

Addressing the same conference, PN councillor Michael Briguglio referred to a 2016 court case about the way bills are calculated, insisting that the government has known of this issue for a while.

He commended civil society and local media for flagging consumers’ concerns, questioning why the government was dragging its feet.

Fears that customers are overpaying on electricity due to the billing method were recently flagged on social networks, as people started receiving bills more frequently.

Earlier this month, Times of Malta reported that Darren Cordina and Melvin Polidano are challenging the authorities for breaching EU directives. The duo want bills to be calculated based on actual annual consumption and a refund given if customers have overpaid.

Their lawyer, Maxilene Ellul, claims the current method of computation breaches at least four EU directives that call for transparency and fair treatment.

The Consumers’ Association has also called for a remedy.

Billing company ARMS has insisted that the issue is a red herring and that its billing processes have not been changed for almost a decade (see ministry reaction below). 

How are you being billed?

According to current legislation, for every kWh of the first 2,000kWh consumed in one year, residents should be charged 10.47c. They then pay 12.98c for every kWh of the next 4,000kWh, 16.07c per unit on the next 4,000kWh, and so on.

However, ARMS splits this allocation among the number of bills that a consumer receives in one year. This means that if a residence is billed every two months, the first 2,000 units are split between six bills, amounting to an allocation of 333 units per bill at 10.47c per unit.

If a residence consumes fewer than 333 units in a two-month billing period, the remaining units at this cheaper rate are not brought forward in the subsequent bills. The allocation is lost and cannot be used in the subsequent months.

If, in the following two months, a residence consumes more than 333 units, it will be charged higher rates from the 334th unit onwards. This means residents are losing out on lower rates for the full allocation of 2,000 units.

How much are you missing out on?

Engineer Mark Anthony Sammut, president of the PN executive committee, gave the following examples. They exclude the eco-reduction, which could allow lead to a further discount.

A family of three which consumed 8,400 unit in a year should have paid €1,117, but was overcharged €141.

A family of five which consumed 8,869 over a year should have paid €1,186, but was overcharged €588.

'Only change has been cheaper bills' - ministry

The Energy Ministry was quick to issue a rebuttal to PN claims, insisting - as ARMS had in previous weeks - that billing practices had remained unchanged since 2009. 

In a statement, the ministry said that while in 2012 households used to receive an average of 6.1 bills every year, in 2017 an average of 5.7 bills had been sent to homes every year.

While highlighting the 25 per cent reduction in tariffs introduced in 2013, the ministry also said that 4.3 per cent more families had remained within the lowest tariff band last year when compared to 2012.

It however said that the government would nevertheless develop a "more efficient" billing method for consumers.

Retaliating, PN said in a statement that the government has still not denied it was charging people more than it should for their utility consumption.