Businesses may receive up to €7,500 refund on their electricity bill as part of a scheme to alleviate financial pressure related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Minister for the Economy, Investment and Small Businesses Silvio Schembri gave details on the ‘Electricity Bill Refund Scheme for Businesses’, a scheme which is part of the government’s multi-million ‘mini-budget’.

The scheme has a budget of €35 million allocated to it and it is planned to support over 16,000 businesses.

“This refund scheme will not only reduce costs for businesses but also support the operating expenditure of businesses that had to limit their operations due to the COVID-19 outbreak earlier this year,” said Schembri.

Who is eligible?

Schembri explained that all businesses benefitting from the Covid wage supplement, including Annex A, Annex B and Annex C are all eligible for the scheme. The refund amount is a reimbursement of 50% of the electrical power bills for any bill partially or fully, covering the months of July, August and September 2020.

The limit of which a business can receive is €1,500; mainly for those businesses with one outlet. The refund increases depending on the number of outlets and number of employees receiving the wage supplement.

Those businesses that have two outlets and up to 10-19 employees will receiving a refund of €3000, whilst businesses with over five outlets and over 40 employees can receive up to €7,500.

The Chief Executive of Malta Enterprise Kurt Farrugia explained that on the 1 September, Malta Enterprise will send an email to all those who were part of the wage supplement so that they can apply for this scheme online. Malta Enterprise shall send an email to all those businesses and self-employed and in the email there will be a link to follow the online application.

From then the business must enter their account number and send a scanned copy of a previous electricity bill previous to July 2020, along with the application.

From there Malta Enterprise shall verify with ARMS, the amount paid by applicants on electricity bills for July-August-September and will affect refund to businesses the same way as the Covid wage supplement.

The closing date for the scheme will be announced soon by the Corporation.