Some Maltese households are being over charged anywhere between €6-600 by ARMS, contrary to the governments claims of lower tariffs, the Nationalist Party said today in a statement.  

PN Deputy Leader David Agius said the party had analysed 100 electricity and water bills from members of the public, with examples of households being overcharged by ARMS. Speaking at a Press Conference held at Dar Centrali, Agius called on the government to commit to an investigation in order to rebate those households who have been overcharged, at least by the end of the year.

The Malta Independent has reported extensively on the billing issues.

"Of those bills, 80% were found to have been overcharged 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 having reduced water and electricity bills."

Speaking at the press conference President of the Nationalist Party Executive Committee Mark Anthony Sammut explained how the frequency with which ARMS issues invoices has a direct effect on the bill.

The Malta Independent has written several consecutive articles on how ARMS invoices appear to be being issued every two months, and inconsistent consumption of electricity and water means that families are being overcharged for their actual consumption.

PN leader Adrian Delia had two weeks called upon the public to bring their invoices to Dar Centrali if they believe they had been overcharged.

As explained in previous stories on the subject, the frequency with which ARMS issues invoices has a direct and material effect on the overall bill. As things stand, the first 2,000 units consumed per household is charged at 10c5, the next 4,000 units at 13c, the next 4,000 units at 16c, the next 10,000 units at 34c and any more units consumed after that are charged at 60c.

This translates into ARMS dividing up the units awarded at their respective rates by 365 days. The 2,000 units at the lowest rate of 10c5 are divided into 365 days, giving a household a maximum of 5.479 units per day at 10c5. The same process is carried out for each of the bands at their respective rates. Since people have begun receiving bills every two months, the quotas are being chopped up with them. A billing period covering 60 days gives 328 units at 10c5. A bill covering a four month period, say 128 days, would give you 701 units at 10c5.

Sammut noted that from the 100 invoices the party had received the length of time ARMS was charging varied from 1 month to two months to two months and half and with some being unchanged (every 6 months as before).

The PN president of the executive committee explained some of the cases the party had analysed with the worst case being a family of five. Due to frequent billing the family had been overly charged in the 34c band more than they were supposed to and had been over charged a whopping €580 extra. Another household with two pensioners had over the year been over charged €45. On the contrary to these cases, Sammut referred to a bill which had not been charged as frequently as other bills, a household which remained being charged every six months, were the extra charge was only €6.

Local PN councillor Michael Briguglio spoke of the explosion of reports about the arms from the media, the start of a group called 'Up in Arms', economists reactions and a court case issued in 2016 by two consumers against ARMS for "illegal" billing.

Government statement

The Energy Ministry, in a statement, argued that the PN spoke at length about a billing system that was introduced in 2009, under a PN administration.

The ministry said that in 2012 bills would be issued around 6.1 times a year, which is an average of one bill per two months, and that in 2017 this dropped to 5.7 times.

The difference between 2012 and 2017, the ministry said, was that tariffs reduced by 25%. They said that the number of families who do not jump over the lowest tariff band (2,000 units per year) rose by 4.3% compared with 2012.

The ministry said that despite this, government already said it will improve the billing system.