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The Malta Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises (GRTU) has officially asked the European Commission to stop the government from imposing new water and electricity tariffs, arguing these would be in breach of EU directives.
Slamming the Malta Resources Authority for “abdicating its responsibilities” in regulating tariffs, and Enemalta for holding back information about its operations and purchasing of fuel, GRTU called on the EU to issue a “cease and desist order” on the government “against the imposition of new electricity tariffs and any other energy charges prior to the full implementation of … EU directives”.
Cabinet is set to decide on Tuesday by how much water and electricity tariffs will be increased following Investments Minister Austin Gatt’s explosive figure of an impending 102 per cent price hike on utilities to make up for a projected Lm50 million shortfall for Enemalta.
But GRTU is insisting that only the resources authority should authorise any tariff changes, in the same way as the communications authority regulates Maltacom’s tariffs.
“We’re going straight to Brussels,” a fiery Vince Farrugia said, the director-general of the GRTU said in an interview with MaltaToday. “We no longer trust the Maltese regulator and we’re now going to the EU regulator. We are asking the EU commissioners for energy and transport to interfere, because it is not the government’s role to impose new tariffs. The prime minister is saying he will decide by Tuesday. I’m sorry, we’re asking the European Commission to issue a cease and desist order on the Maltese authorities, not to impose new electricity tariffs unless the whole process is transparent and investigated.”
In his letter to the EU energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs and to the EU transport commissioner Jacques Barrot, Farrugia wrote: “GRTU deeply regrets that the Maltese Regulatory Authority (Malta Resources Authority) appears to have abdicated its responsibilities under EU Directive 2003/54/EC.”
Referring to various EU directives, GRTU said it was “particularly concerned at the lack of transparency exercised by the state monopoly Enemalta Corporation in the formulation of the proposed new electrical tariffs”.
It charged Enemalta with not being transparent on its fuel purchasing policies when this information should “by right, be made available and unhindered under the EU directive”. GRTU added that the government was supporting a tariff policy of cross-subsidisation on electricity and fuels to the detriment of small and medium enterprise.
It said: “GRTU contends that any decisions by the Maltese authorities that do not fully respect EU Directives on electricity, energy and transport in relation to the use of energy supplies by commerce and industry as well as households will cause serious economic and commercial harm to SMEs represented by GRTU.”
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