Maltese households are to start receiving adjusted utility bills from this coming Monday, the 10th of October, applied retroactively from 1st January 2022, thereby amending the 2009 billing regulations to “resolve inconsistencies in the applicable computations.”

For around 81% of customers this adjustment will mean a reduction of between zero and eight euro per year.

This was announced in a press conference by the Ministry for the Environment, Energy and Enterprise.

It was explained that as a result of the newly-announced revisions, ARMS is launching a revised billing system that will continue issuing bills every two months, “while constantly giving customers adjustments for the previous month’s unused units.”

The utility bills will retain the current format, but will now include two new lines, one showing the “adjustment” of electricity consumption in Euros, and another one showing the “adjustment” of water consumption, also in Euros.

Energy Minister Miriam Dalli advised that, “the solution follows months of technical testing and after resolving inconsistencies arising from the legal text of the original regulation drafted by the 2008-2013 administration.”

She stated that, “we did not opt for an annualised system that reconciles bills once a year, as this would have meant that 21% of our customers would lose their eco-reduction benefits. Instead, we planned a solution that gives customers an adjustment every two months, so that they can better assess and plan their energy consumption throughout the year.”

She said that the 2009 regulations were originally introduced in tandem with the smart metering system, when customers started receiving bills every two months, as opposed to six months. “This bi-monthly billing system, launched on 1st January 2010, was giving rise to the possibility that customers may not utilise all the units of the tariff bands allocated to them.”

Water and electricity consumption rates for residential buildings in Malta are structured in several tariff bands, with lower rates for the first units consumed and higher ones for heavier consumption, to discourage excessive energy use.

The Minister said that consumers who have constant monthly consumption within the parameters of the band entitlements, or who regularly exceed them, are likely to get “minimal or zero adjustments.”

Silvio Scerri, ARMS CEO, said that the revised system will apply retroactively to water and electricity consumption from 1st January 2022. The computation of eco-reduction will continue to be calculated on a bi-monthly basis, and not cumulatively, to ensure that households do not lose this reduction, Scerri explained.

He added that ARMS is also upgrading its online bill calculator to give customers more details on their bill’s computation.

For more information, please visit www.arms.com.mt

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