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Proposed reduction in utility bills for tourism industry ‘not cosmetic’ – Gavin Gulia
Labour MP Gavin Gulia says the reduction in water and electricity bills the Opposition is promising will not be cosmetic.
25 November 2012, 12:00am
Karl Stagno-Navarra
Karl Stagno-Navarra
1 min read
Labour MP Gavin Gulia
In an interview to Sunday newspaper Illum, Opposition MP Gavin Gulia said the Labour Party's electoral pledge to reduce utility bills for the tourism industry "are not cosmetic" but will be carried out according to the needs of the sector.
Gulia explained that the electricity tariffs are the biggest burden on the industry and is affecting the operators' profitability.
The MP added that hotels forked out €19 million in 2009 and €28 million in 2010 in electricity tariffs and pledged to reduce electricity tariffs in order to help the industry strengthen its profitability.
Gavin Gulia also said that the government "should maintain control of Air Malta" in order to carry out its strategic role. However he did not express opposition to the airline's partial privatisation.
Read the full interview in today's edition of Illum
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The promise of substantial reductions in energy and water tariffs is not the best way to deal with the situation. It just encourages waste and is utterly unjustifiable. We all know that the price of energy is substantial, we all know that the trend of the prices of crude oil is to go up and we all know that as sources of oil dwindle, the price of oil can only go up, once the demand by China, India, Brazil keeps rising. Do we or don't we want to make use of renewable energy? If we do, we should encourage hoteliers to invest in solar heaters and photovoltaic cells. The same goes for water consumption. Why not encourage hoteliers to collect runoff water from their vast roofs in cisterns; this could be used for washing of floors, flushing tanks, showers etc. This is the way forward; promising reductions in W&E tariffs is just an irresponsible vote-catching exercise.
