BusinessToday Previous Editions

3 NEWS 27.5.2021 Grech pledges €50 million refund in 'stolen' electricity overcharge MATTHEW VELLA THE Nationalist Party has accused the Maltese government of robbing utility customers "millions" in additional pay- ments on energy bills after a National Audit Office carried out its review of the Enemalta payment structure. Opposition leader Bernard Grech said the NAO audit had confirmed what the PN had already claimed early on in the day when the Labour government pri- vatised energy generation. "e Maltese have been robbed for years. We never had any doubt. Today we have an inde- pendent source telling us as much." A draft report by the NAO found that consumers could have paid "extra charges" totalling €6.5 million on their electricity and water bills. Grech pledged that a Nationalist ad- minstration would return €50 million in over-charged bills from eight years of billing since Enemalta changed its bill- ing structure, and then started sourcing energy from the Electrogas LNG plant. "e governemnt has a legal and moral duty to find any way to give back to citz- ien what it has stolen," Grech said. e NAO found a variance of €4.6 mil- lion in electricity bills and €1.9 million variance in water bills. A legal challenge was mounted by two consumers in 2019, who are arguing the calculation of their bills on a pro-ra- ta basis rather than an annual one was leading them to be overcharged by ARMS, the state utilities billing arm. e PN has already claimed its own studies on overbilling found 80 per cent of the 1,250 bills it analysed contained some sort of "mistake" in the way the tariffs were calculated. e NAO's findings were part of a wider audit into the effectiveness of smart meters and water radio frequen- cy meters. PN deputy leader for parliamentary affairs David Agius said the Labour ad- ministration had failed to fulfil a prom- ise by former prime minister Joseph Muscat to review the Enemalta pricing structure. Nationalist MP Ryan Callus said Mal- ta's energy fate was bound by Enemalta's long-term deal with Electrogas, whose shareholder SOCAR sources LNG sup- plies at prices it determines. "e inter- connector to Italy has always provided us with cheaper energy, yet the Electro- gas deal is now a millstone around our neck." Muscat claim Consumers bitten by "an anomaly" in the utility billing system were told they could get redress by 2020, Joseph Muscat had said back in 2019. e issue concerns the manner by which utility billing company ARMS has been calcu- lating bills every two months. e two-monthly actual bills being sent to consumers are splitting the an- nual quota of cheap units into smaller portions. As a result, consumers end up jumping into the higher brackets every two months, and with ARMS failing to reconcile the bills on an annual basis, consumers end up paying more. Muscat had said there was an "anom- aly" in the manner by which bills were calculated that was impacting "a par- ticular bracket". Utility bills confirms PN's hypothesisof overcharging on energy, 'people robbed of millions' says Bernard Grech AN investigation has been launched over concerns raised about the possibility of taxpayer money being spent to boost Destiny's Eurovision odds with bookmakers. e audit stems from a request by the board of the Public Broadcasting Services, to Minister Carmelo Abela, who or- dered an audit of expenditure after he received reports that part of the budget allocated to Malta's team was used to place bets on performer Destiny. Money was also used to pay overseas social media influencers, who published promotional content backing the Maltese sing- er, who finished in seventh place. e Malta Tourism Authority spent around €350,000 to pro- mote Malta's entry. e audit is expected to look into how that money was spent. Destiny's song Je Me Casse ranked third-favourite with book- makers for a win before heading into the final on Saturday night. But after winning her semi-final and placing third in the final jury vote, Malta received a disappointing 47 votes from Euro- pean viewers during the televoting round. Investigation launched into claims Eurovision money was spent on bets Destiny placed seventh after receiving a disappointing 47 votes from European viewers during the televoting round

• Cover