Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said this evening that the average use of energy saving bulbs would neutralise the increase in the power tariffs for households.

Dr Gonzi reacted to opposition criticism of the new tariffs when he spoke in Parliament about the budget.

He said the new tariffs had been introduced on the principle that everybody paid for his consumption, and subsidies which encouraged waste should be removed.

Last Monday, he said, Opposition leader Joseph Muscat had called on the government to withdraw the new utility tariffs and made other proposals, but he did not say where the money would come from.

It was well known that oil prices had reached record highs in the middle of the year and then dropped. No one knew what the future held, some were saying prices would return to $100 by year’s end. The government had assumed the worst case scenario but the new mechanism was such that prices would go down as necessary.

It was important to keep in mind, however, that oil purchases were not made overnight and their impact took time to work themselves through to the pumps. Furthermore Malta did not buy crude, but refined oil which did not fluctuate in parallel with the price of crude.

Dr Gonzi said that the new power tariffs would mean an increased outlay of between 85 euro cents and €1.45 per week for most domestic account holders. However, using energy saving bulbs for five hours per day would save a family €175 per year. Experts had confirmed that using energy saving lamps - which the government would hand out - would reduce the impact of the new tariffs to zero.

Dr Gonzi observed that the opposition was asking why petrol prices were falling in the UK, but not in Malta. Yet prices per litre of petrol and diesel in Malta were actually cheaper, the reason being that excise duties on fuel in the UK were much higher than Malta’s.

Earlier, Dr Gonzi accused Dr Muscat of having ignored the international crisis when he criticized the budget last Monday,.

The budget, Dr Gonzi said, was aimed at addressing the challenges which Malta faced in view of the world turmoil, yet Dr Muscat, inexplicably, acted like Malta was on its own and took the budget out of its context.

This was the same Dr Muscat who used to campaign against Malta joining the EU. He had also urged Malta to slow down the process of euro adoption. Yet one would shudder to think what Malta would have experienced in the current crisis had those decisions not been taken.

The opposition also used to criticize the government over the shipyards, but had the government not acted in the way it did, it would have been in hot water, like Poland was, with the EU having ruled that state aid to Polish shipyards was unlawful. What of the workers then?

How could Dr Muscat be credible in his analysis when it was based on a tale and ignored the exceptional international situation?

Dr Gonzi said that what happened on Wall Street impacted on Bulebel. What had happened at Toly, Trelleborg and Methode was all a direct result of what was happening abroad, such as the downturn in the global sale of cars.

The budget, therefore, responded to these challenges and others, such as the environment.

The government based itself on the views of major economists who had called for government investment which yielded long term results rather than rebate cheques for short term gain.

Still the government had reduced income tax, introduced further incentives for women to return to work, introduced incentives for job creation and was investing heavily in sectors such as education and the infrastructure, Dr Gonzi said.,

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