Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/987221
NEWS 6 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 27 MAY 2018 COURT NOTICE The Registrar of Civil Courts and Tribunals informs that the Civil Court, First Hall ordered the following sales by auction: Date Time Judicial Sale No Place Items 6 th June 2018 10.30am 4/18-EGL J.Zammit Estates Limited C-52422 vs Loreta Attard. ID- 266075M St James Court Garage No. 3, Triq Is-Sienja, H'attard Vehicle of the make BMW116i, grey in colour with the registration number IBQ 346 20 th June 2018 10.00am 8/18-AZ J.Zammit Limited C-37945 vs Duranovic Coreschi ID-383484M St James Court Garage No. 3, Triq Is-Sienja, H'attard Vehicle of the make KIA Piccanto white in colour with the chassis number KNEBA 24427T370130, with the registration number LCT 548 Further details can be obtained from the website: http://www.justiceservices.gov.mt/courtservices/JudicialSales/search.aspx The bidders taking part in the auction must present their identity card Rudolph Marmara' For the Registrar Civil Courts and Tribunals YANNICK PACE MALTESE households with an annual electricity con- sumption closer to tariff band limits are likely to be paying more for their electricity, ac- cording to the results of a lim- ited investigation carried out by MaltaToday. Meanwhile, residences used seasonally or at irregu- lar intervals, as well as those households that frequently receive 'no reading' bills, are almost certain to be paying significantly more for their electricity than they should. Enemalta provides elec- tricity to consumers, while ARMS, a government agency, administers the billing pro- cess. ARMS' billing system was recently cast into the spotlight after economist Marie Briguglio started look- ing into complaints on social media by people who had no- ticed an increase in their elec- tricity bills. The story was picked up by the Malta Independent and after further investigation, it was revealed that ARMS was billing customers on a pro-ra- ta basis, with bills being sent out every two months, caus- ing consumers to be charged at a higher rate. According to the First Schedule of the Electric- ity Market Regulations (S.L 545.01), consumers must be billed at 10.47c for every kWh for the first 2,000kWh used, at 12.98c for every kWh of the next 4,000kWh, 16.07c per kWh on the next 4,000kWh, 34.20c for the next 10,000kWh and at 60.76c for any consumption after that. The law also allows for con- sumers to be billed on a pro- rata basis but does not oblige ARMS to refund users who have paid more than they should have over a period of 12 months. The reason some customers might require a refund is that when ARMS bills customers every two months, it also di- vides their annual quota by six and spreads it equally over the six bills customers will be receiving in one calendar year. This means that consumers cannot divide their quota of electricity at the lowest tariff over a twelve-month period as is required by their con- sumption pattern, but rather must contend with roughly 333 units at the lowest rate every two months. In order to get an indication of how much more people could be paying, MaltaTo- day considered three distinct hypothetical scenarios for a household's annual consump- tion pattern and calculated the amount due in one year if the total was calculated on the basis of six bi-monthly bills. Different levels of annual consumption were con- sidered in order to deter- mine how the discrepancy changed with consumption. Year-round use peaking in summer In the first, a household's consumption pattern over a year was modelled over na- tional electricity generation statistics for 2016. While it is not being claimed that household consump- tion is identical to national electricity generation, like many households, national consumption increases in hot summer months, and reaches its lowest point in the spring. In this example, the maxi- mum fluctuation between the lowest consumption month and the highest was rough- ly 37%. Households using 2000kWh a year were found to be paying a negligible 0.9% more for their electricity, equivalent to €1.92 a year. Calculated bills for con- sumption between 3,000kWh Households with consumption near tariff band limits be paying more for electricity Pattern 1: Consumption based on monthly national electricity generation statistics for 2016 Pattern 2: Consumption based on monthly national electricity generation statistics for 2016 with one 'no reading' bill KARL AZZOPARDI IN a press conference yesterday, PN spokesman David Agius said that the party had examined 100 bills passed on by families. "Of those bills, 80 percent were found to have been over- charged by anywhere between €6 and €600 in one year," he said. "The initial examination of ARMS bills covered 2015, 2016 and 2017 and clearly disproved the government's claims of hav- ing redacted water and electric- ity bills." Engineer Mark Anthony Sam- mut said that it was immediately obvious that the overcharges were a result of ARMS issuing bills every two months, thereby affecting charges for unit tariff bands. "If ARMS send more bills at a shorter period of time, the high- er the chance irregularities may occur in the amount due to be paid," Sammut claimed. Sammut said that they were being "conservative" in the way the amount due to the induvial by ARMS was calculated, stating that in the calculations released, the eco-contribution tax was not part of the final calculations, therefore some families may be eligible to further compensa- tion. In one case, a family of four utilised 8,869 electricity units over 12 months, which should all have been charged at 16c, but since 1,400 of those units were consumed within two months, those were charged at 34c, re- sulting in a total bill of €1,774 for 2015, instead of €1,180. In another case related to wa- ter bills, Sammut explained how families that had consumed more than the monthly aver- age, had no time to make-up for it during other months, due to receiving bills every two months or earlier. The units charged to those families therefore were more ex- pensive. Sammut mentioned a family of three who had consumed more than the monthly average. The family was charged €5.14 per unit instead of €1.40 after ex- ceeding the 33-unit allocation per person. Sociologist Michael Briguglio, in his first official appearance for the PN, said that many families were experiencing an increase in water and electricity bills, de- spite tariffs not having been af- fected. "It is good to see that the peo- ple and independent media has reacted, showing that the prom- ises made by Konrad Mizzi on water and electricity bills were not true," Briguglio said. PN claims ARMS bills increased by up to €600 each year under Labour