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MALTATODAY 6 June 2021

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4 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 6 JUNE 2021 NEWS Cases 30,568 Active 76 Recoveries 30,073 Deaths 419 Vaccinations 546,637 LATEST COVID-19 www.maltatoday.com.mt/covid19 MATTHEW VELLA ENERGY minister Miriam Dalli has in- sisted a Nationalist Party proposal that would 'annualise' electricity bills for businesses, will end up costing commer- cial operators by removing a progressive scale that reduce electricity tariffs. Dalli's reaction came following her ap- pearance on TVM's Xtra, in which she faced off Nationalist shadow energy min- ister Ryan Callus over the PN's campaign to refund €50 million in over-charged residential and commercial energy bills. The pledge came on top of a National Audit Office report on energy bill sam- ples that found consumers could have paid "extra charges" totalling €6.5 mil- lion on their electricity and water bills per year. Dalli said this week that the problem was created under a National- ist administration due to a legal notice issued in 2009 that mandates bills to be issued every two months. Asked to explain in further detail her claims on TVM that the PN's coun- ter-proposal harms business, the energy minister said that by levelling out unit prices for businesses, higher consumers cannot avail themselves of a progressive reduction in unit price the more they consume energy. "There has been a long-standing polit- ical consensus that the commercial bill- ing process should not hinder business growth… the PN strategy does the exact opposite: it disincentivises investment and endangers jobs and takes us back to the times when electricity tariffs were stifling growth," Dalli told MaltaToday. Working out the commercial tariff The commercial tariff has nine bands to it, where the first five tariffs increase with consumption but then reduce pro- gressively through the remaining four bands. That makes these last four bands significantly cheaper than the first five. Dalli insists that with the PN's propos- al, businesses will first be charged for all the 'expensive' tariff bands before they can start benefiting from the cheaper units. "Electricity tariffs for businesses in- crease progressively up to the first 60,000 units per year, reaching the peak price. When this amount is reached, tar- iffs start decreasing and for every addi- tional unit, businesses pay lower rate," she said. Now according to the current sys- tem, bills for businesses are issued on a monthly basis. That means that it is the units consumed in each particular month that get distributed over the var- ious bands, mak- ing it likely for high-consumption businesses to sur- pass the thresh- old allowing them benefit from the cheaper tariffs. "With the PN's proposed annu- alisation meth- od, businesses will be forced to consume all of the more expen- sive bands before they can benefit from the cheaper bands. This means that Maltese and Gozitan business- es will continue to pay higher rates for a longer period and it will take them much longer to reach the lower tariffs when compared to the current system," Dalli said. The energy minister provided as an example a small business – a butch- er's shop or a small mechanic's garage, or even a small restaurant or mid-sized mall – that consumes 200 units a day, which typically would pay anything be- tween €800-€1,200 every month. At peak unit, these customers will pay 15c per unit – under the PN's annualised system, Dalli says they would first have to con- sume all units at 16c1 before reaching the 15c rate. "This shift between bands will cause an increase of 7.5% in the cost of the peak units," she insisted. In a further example where businesses such as supermarkets, schools or elderly care homes are paying around €8,000 per month for some 2,000 units a day, Dal- li sets the peak unit price at 14c. "With the PN proposal, the shift between bands will result in a peak price of 16c1 – an increase of 15% when compared to the current system," she said. In yet another example for larger com- panies employing over 50 workers like hotels or steel-making factories, again the PN's proposal forces the companies to suffer the 16c-unit prices before ben- efiting from the lower rates of 15c, 14c and 13c – as opposed to the current sys- tem wherein tariffs start decreasing and for every additional unit. "With the PN proposal, these custom- ers would probably never benefit from the lowest rate of 10c8 as their con- sumption would have been distributed over the more expensive bands. The end result is thousands more in electricity bills," Dalli told MaltaToday. "Labour takes well-thought and studied decisions because it believes any change needs to be just and fair. It's useless giv- ing businesses pennies if this is going to cost them pounds. Any decision should ensure that livelihoods are protected, jobs are safeguarded and customers en- joys stability and peace of mind," Dalli said. 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 Band 1 Band 2 Band 3 Band 4 Band 5 Band 6 Band 7 Band 8 Band 9 Non-residential bands NINE new cases of COVID-19 have been detected over the past 24 hours and 7 recoveries re- corded. The number of active infection cases has gone down slightly to 76 on Saturday. This is the 16th consecutive day with less than 100 active cases. 2,764 swab tests were carried out on Friday. A total of 419 people have died while infected with COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic in Malta. The last COVID-19 re- lated death was 11 days ago. 546,637 doses of the vaccine have been administered to date. 230,594 people are fully vacci- nated. Earlier this week, Public Health Superintendent Prof. Char- maine Gauci announced that Malta had registered its first case of the Delta variant (Indi- an) on the island. She added that more information would be giv- en at a later date. Asked about the Delta variant (Indian), Gauci said according to the WHO, it is being considered a variant of concern. Gauci also reminded travellers that the strategy at the Malta In- ternational Airport has changed. Passengers must provide a PCR test or have a valid vaccination certificate. Gauci said that 95% of people had arrived with the correct documentation in the first two days. However, regarding the 5% of those who managed to travel without the right documenta- tion, Gauci said they were tested once in Malta and quarantined until the results were out. Talks were underway with air- lines to ensure that it didn't hap- pen again. Gauci said during this past week, no positive cases were found coming in through the airport. Nine new cases of COVID-19 Dalli: PN billing proposal punishes businesses by reversing gains Energy minister Miriam Dalli explained to MaltaToday claims that PN's billing reforms 'punish' businesses Dalli insists that with the PN's proposal, businesses will first be charged for all the 'expensive' tariff bands before they can start benefiting from the cheaper units.

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