A Nationalist Party study found that 80% of electricity bills issued by Enemalta have been miscalculated and overcharged people by amounts varying from €10 up to €300.
PN chief spokesperson Peter Agius said that he “dreams of a day when the issue of electricity bills is not used for political games in favour of one party or another.”
Also speaking at the press conference, PN MP Ryan Callus together with PN candidate and General Council President Mark Anthony Sammut addressed the issues of changing the calculation mechanism for electricity bills.
Callus said that the promised reduced electricity bills were nothing but a “curtain of lies hiding the wrongdoings they were planning.”
The first time that the PN spoke about wrong electrical bills was in 2017, Callus said. From a study which the PN conducted earlier throughout the year, out of 1000 bills, 80% were found to be overcharging people.
“A PN led government pledges to stop the wrongful billings and also refund the money owed to the people,” Callus said.
The recent heatwave meant that people over the previous couple of months have received higher electricity bills than usual. “This does not mean that people should not pay the amount due for the units they have consumed, but money which was stolen from them has to be refunded.”
“There is a desperate need in change of the mechanism for calculating these bills.”
Recently, not only has the government recognised this mistake, they are not going to refund the people, the PN said. “A PN government promises to give back the money as that is the money of the people and not the government.”
Sammut then proceeded to remind people that last February, the PN published its strategic plan for the next 30 years with regard to the energy sector.
“A PN government would firstly revise the binding contracts the labour government has gotten us into. These contracts are stealing millions from the Maltese public and brought a bad reputation to Malta,” Sammut said in reference to the Electrogas deal.
Improvements to the distribution network, together with better tariffs for solar panel owners and the introduction of the hydrogen pipeline were topics Sammut touched upon.
“These proposals and promises by the PN show that we are not only fulfilling our role as the opposition but we are also showing that the Nationalist Party is a viable option for leading the government.”