A Treasury department member has committed to review the differing prices paid to Manx Gas by branches of government.

In the House of Keys on Tuesday, it was revealed there was a large difference in prices paid by different government departments.

Julie Edge (LibVannin, Onchan) tabled a question asking which sections of government were consumers of natural gas, provided by Manx Gas, and how much they paid.

Treasury department member Bill Shimmins (Middle) said: ’The departments, boards and offices that are consumers of natural gas are: Infrastructure; Health and Social Care; Education and Children; Environment, Food and Agriculture; Economic Development; Home Affairs; and Manx National Heritage.

’The tariffs were set up and agreed with Manx Gas when the gas supplies were originally installed for each site and reflect the expected gas usage.

’The tariffs paid by government range from 2.74p per unit to 10.27p per unit, with an average of 3.6679p.’

David Ashford (Douglas North) asked Mr Shimmins if there was any intention to ’bundle up all the different contracts’ in future, so that a single tariff was charged across government.

Mr Shimmins said: ’This is something that we are very keen to investigate.

’There are advantages and disadvantages in bundling and centrally procuring, in terms of managing your costs, but also empowering areas and departments to take ownership and reduce energy consumption and their costs.

’But it does feel that the area is ripe for a bit of a review.’

He said that tariffs had been ’based on the expected demand and/or the level of financial support offered by Manx Gas towards the gas plant to be installed’.

Mr Shimmins added: ’The government has a number of tariffs based on individual properties and individual negotiations which took place at that time.

’The discrepancies in the tariffs require further investigation so that we can understand the background to these contracts and we will seek best value for the taxpayer.’

Tim Baker (Ayre and Michael) had a warning for those seeking the government to negotiate cheaper bills from Manx Gas, because of the regulatory agreement that allows the company a maximum profit of 9.99 per cent.

’We need to be really careful with the unintended consequences of the course of action that we have just talked about,’ he said.

’Given that Manx Gas makes a fixed profit percentage, if government buys cheaper, then effectively that will mean the most likely outcome is that prices for the ordinary consumer will rise.