Energy Minister Miriam Dalli has said nothing new in announcing that the ARMS mechanism will be changed in the coming days, as she is just repeating what she has been saying throughout the year, PN MP Mark Antony Sammut said during a press conference on Wednesday.
He said that the money which the government overcharged from consumers since the mechanism has been in place, will not be refunded, other than what was overcharged since the start of this year till the first day of when the new mechanism is implemented.
Dalli said earlier on Wednesday that in the coming days, the government will announce a revision of the ARMS bills mechanism in order to address a legal anomaly.
Sammut added that what Dalli said on Wednesday, continues to confirm that what the court, the PN and the ex-Prime Minister himself Joseph Muscat said about the mechanism being faulty was correct.
"Even our own former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat knew about these extra charges, and yet years have passed, and people are still suffering from this injustice," Sammut had said.
Earlier this month, the Nationalist Party called for individuals who wish to participate in a class action lawsuit against ARMS on account of being overcharged for water and electricity to come forward.
The PN has also set up a website for people to sign up and be part of the lawsuit, as per the details announced by Sammut and his fellow MP Ryan Callus during a press conference.
Sammut said that hundreds have already applied through the website, adding that “the only thing that those applying would have to do is bring us their bills when we ask them, as opposed to opening a case on their own”.
On the matter he is also urging that those who want to get a refund also apply “as this is the only way they will get their money back”.
Present for the press conference was also PN MP Ryan Callus, who said that the Energy Minister with Wednesday’s announcement wanted to make it look “as if she was announcing something new.”
Referring to what Dalli said about the need for the mechanism to be revised because of a legal anomaly present after a law was introduced in 2009, he said that this is not the case as it also goes against what the court is saying: that this same law it is not the problem.
PL reaction
In a statement in reaction, the Labour Party said that the only government which robbed the people was the Nationalist Government whom the above spokespersons defended for years.
“That was the government which raised bills in Malta above the European average, before challenges which are nothing next to today’s,” the PL said.
The party said that a Labour government had not only made bills cheaper but had also kept them stable during the worst of the pandemic and the war in Europe, with hundreds of millions of euros invested into Maltese families and businesses continuously.
The PL said that alongside this it would be addressing the “legal notice from 2009 which the PN left behind”, therefore implementing a budgetary promise.
The PL said that Bernard Grech and his spokespersons are repeating “Simon Busuttil’s lies, and in both cases the people already sent a strong message that the PN is truly not credible, including on energy.”