The Maltese family which consumes 10,000 kilowatts of electricity per year will be paying 18c9 for each unit – the same price it was paying (under the same conditions) in October 2008, as from the New Year. It currently pays 15c2, but the plot thickens... and it all depends on a cheque and a meeting in Copenhagen.

In a mass of legal, consultative and data documents, the real issue of the new tariffs did not immediately come to light. But, in a nutshell, the average family will be paying 18c9 (the same price as October 2008) compared to the 15c2 which it is paying now – an increase of about 4 cents per unit (assuming it consumes over 10,000kw). There is also a twist. In the last budget, the government announced that e17 million was to be allocated in benefits to citizens: Around e7 million is expected to be paid back by means of energy benefits to 28,000 residential accounts, while a further e10 million will be given in additional benefits to those families who consume less than 10,000 units of electricity.

The end result, claims Austin Gatt's Ministry, is that 97 per cent of the general public will not face a higher bill, or if they do, it will be a minimal one because they fall under that threshold. Speaking to this newspaper, a spokesman from the Infrastructure Ministry said that on average, once the (one-off) cheques are sent to households around Malta and Gozo and are factored into the annual family budget, the usual bill will more or less be the same.

However, the matter of the cheques being distributed is still subject to action from the Finance Ministry. The government also maintains that it is steadfast in its drive to ensure that tariff rates must always favour those who consume less water and electricity - hence the rebate for those who consumed less.

"Between the period of April and December 2009, Enemalta lost around €21.4 million because the price of oil was higher than what was calculated in the tariffs which were set last April, to the extent that tariffs were reduced between 22 per cent and 26 per cent during that time. Thus to compensate for such losses, an increase is necessary," said the Ministry.

Tariffs for garages, empty houses, businesses and summer residences will increase, an obvious move to shift more financial responsibility onto those who own more assets. Meanwhile, the government said, around €2.5 million in subsidies has been allocated in this year's budget to be spread out between a variety of businesses and firms.

The new tariffs imposed have been calculated on the assumption that the price of oil is expected to reach heights of $81.80 a barrel in 2010. It is also expected that next year, Enemalta will fork out €35.5 million more (barring global collapse, more wars, market crashes, the outcome of Copenhagen, OPEC's reaction, kidnapping in the Niger Delta, typhoons hitting the refineries and much, much more) to purchase the same amount of oil that it did in 2009. Copenhagen, and more importantly the readiness to ditch fossil fuels in reaction to the carbon credit system, will perhaps influence future prices the most.

No increase was made for the services of meters, while the government stated that it will stick to its word and provide subsidies, amounting to €41 million in all, for families prior to the payment for water and electricity bills.

A new drainage tax, compliant with EU directives will be introduced, but the government has been granted dispensation by the EU to allocate an EUR14.6m subsidy which will cover costs for the consumer. For how long it is retained is yet to be established.

There was also the issue of a discrepancy between what Enemalta and the WSC had asked the Malta Resources Authority to approve and it lay in the EUR7m region. The MRA stuck to its guns and the two corporations are set to absorb it.

In a statement the MRA said the proposed tariffs "will enable Enemalta to achieve an acceptable rate of return on both its current and future capital employed, which would enable it to service its existing debt obligations and sustain an acceptable fixed asset replacement and upgrade policy". A very quick analytical eye would say that the corporations will get more money and the government has made a big point of showing that it has used its own budget and the rolling EU budget (and its many programmes) to offset and/or absorb that injection. In other words, what the government has gone to great pains to tell us what it has absorbed/offset (although we will still pay a bit more) is what we can expect to pay in the near future.

Whatever the case my be, whether we are throttled by the skyrocketing price of oil, or whether we are forced into a radical (and expensive) change through a deal in Copenhagen, it is clear that we will have to pay much more in the not so distant future.