Enemalta has received at least 1,400 applications from people who carried out unauthorised work on the corporation’s equipment installed on their premises, such as the meter or service box, and want to regularise their position.

Corporation chairman Ing. Alex Tranter told The Malta Independent yesterday that Enemalta expected the number of applications received to increase considerably by Friday’s deadline when the one-time tampering regularisation scheme closes.

The one-time tampering regularisation scheme began on 15 March with civil and criminal penalties being waived for any consumer who applied during the regularisation period although these have to pay a non-refundable deposit according to the type of service in use. For instance, domestic account holders have to pay Lm100, while commercial premises with hefty energy requirements can pay up to Lm1,900.

However, for those who have been tampering with the electricity service over the years, this is a small sum to pay compared to the hefty fines that they could face if they are caught after Friday’s deadline.

Giving a breakdown of the number of applications received until last Friday at noon, Ing. Tranter said 1,250 applications were from Maltese clients and the remainder from Gozitans. While Enemalta is very happy with the number of applications, he said they were disappointed at the low number of applications from commercial customers. Only 20 applications from commercial customers were received, Ing. Tranter said.

He said the applicants were evenly spread across the Maltese islands.

Enemalta’s chairman said the majority of irregularities declared fell within the following three categories: tampering with the seals on the electricity meter, the drilling of tiny holes in the meter to slow down the rotating disc, and other damage to the casing or meter itself.

Ing. Tranter said that 70 per cent of all applications had been processed and customers’ meters had been replaced with a tamper-proof digital meter.

“Within the next two weeks we hope to have processed those applications that are pending and any new ones that come in by Friday,” he explained.

To date, the corporation has collected over Lm140,000 in non-refundable deposits and it estimates that it will be recovering up to Lm300,000 a year from what was “unrecognised electricity consumption” from now on.

Ing. Tranter encouraged Enemalta’s clients who had tampered with the service to come forward and benefit from the one-off scheme. He said the penalties for those caught with tampered meters or service boxes after Friday would be hefty.

Changes in the legislation have also made it easier for Enemalta to curb theft of electricity and to take action against those found abusing of the service.

“In the past we had to ask the police to take action but new legislation that has come into force now allows the corporation to suspend a client’s electricity supply immediately and demand payment,” he explained.

The amount of money that has to be paid to the corporation will be based on established benchmarks according to the type of household, the number of occupants and, for instance, the number of air-conditioning units in the house. Enemalta will then estimate consumption over a period of five years and the client will have to pay the difference plus 10 per cent of the total value.

“We want people to realise that we are not taking the issue lightly. This is an opportunity for those who have tampered with the service to regularise their position now and not risk hefty fines when they are caught,” Ing. Tranter said.

As from Saturday, Enemalta’s electricity theft unit will start carrying out inspections once again. Over the past year, the unit’s resources have been increased to 30 inspectors who work in pairs.

The corporation is currently in the process of replacing all the old meters with digital meters that are not only tamper-proof but give Enemalta the facility to monitor consumption remotely and also introduce, for example, different consumption rates or give credit to a household using solar energy that redirects some of its electricity back into the grid.

Enemalta hopes to have replaced all the meters within the next three years.