The Nationalist Party has been making a song and dance that the Labour government has stolen millions from citizens through incorrect billing for utilities.
Grasping on a Times of Malta article on a draft National Audit Office study, they argue that 80 per cent of utility bills involve over-charging.
The Nationalist Party rushed headlong into making policy promises without looking at the implications of its proposals.
If billing were to change like they propose for commercial customers, the impact on businesses and thus jobs could be dramatic, but the Nationalist Party had no idea whatsoever about this.
This episode shows the perils of policy by media, which the Nationalist Party is embarking on.
But why will businesses, and thus jobs, be impacted negatively? There are currently nine bands in the commercial tariff.
The first five tariffs increase with consumption but then, the tariff of the remaining four bands reduces, such that the second four bands are significantly cheaper.
With the PN proposal, businesses would first be charged for all the expensive units before they could start benefitting from the cheaper units.
The impact would be mostly felt on businesses during summer when their electricity consumption rises due to their heavier use of air conditioning. Under the current scheme, this would be charged at a lower rate, whereas under the PN scheme they would pay the higher rates.
Besides disadvantaging medium and large firms, the PN policy would affect negatively any business that has seasonal activity, e.g. ice cream parlours, restaurants, businesses related to tourism and English language schools.
All of these would face significantly higher bills.
Who, in their right mind, would burden business owners just emerging from an economic shock with higher bills?
This shows how ill-thought the PN proposal is. Who, in their right mind, would burden business owners just emerging from an economic shock with higher bills?
Well, as you all know, the previous Nationalist administration did exactly that. From paying 12c8 per unit in 2007, Maltese firms ended up paying 19c in 2010.
After facing a global recession, the helping hand of a Nationalist administration was one clutching away 50 per cent more for each unit of electricity.
The Nationalist politicians of the time, many still in the shadow cabinet, justified that heist by saying that it reflected rising international oil prices.
Government could only act prudently and pass on this cost.
The truth is that while in the EU electricity rates rose by 10 per cent, in Malta they were hiked by 50 per cent, or five times more than average.
Contrary to the PN, we do not do policy by media. We are studying how best to have a just and fair system.
What is sure is that any decision should ensure a fair deal for families while making sure that livelihoods are protected.
Maltese and Gozitan families know that Labour is not tight-fisted with them.
In the past seven years, despite the Alice in Wonderland taunts by the Nationalist Party in 2013, we delivered not only lower utility bills but managed to save Maltese families and businesses over €500 million.
They know that at the height of a pandemic the Labour administration made sure that jobs were protected by investing another €500 million in wage supplement.
Maltese and Gozitan families know that it is this administration that has solutions for issues created by the previous PN administration.
It is the same as when we tackled the Feed-In-Tariff scheme, after families were deceived by the PN administration and led to believe that it spanned over much longer but in reality expired after seven or eight years.
We rectified that, because we will not shy away from providing solutions for issues that have been created. People can trust us to do the right thing.
Miriam Dalli, Minister for Energy