A litre of petrol cost a Maltese worker 15 per cent of his hourly wage, much more than the six per cent of the hourly wage it cost a British worker, Labour leader Joseph Muscat said yesterday.

Speaking to supporters in Gozo, the Labour leader said that such were the comparisons that had to be made.

Malta, he said, had highest cost of living increase in the Eurozone, where energy prices were going down. The energy inflation rate in this zone between September and October had gone down from 13.5 to 10 per cent.

In the EU, this dropped from 15 to 12 per cent. The only exception was Malta where with the energy prices as they were before the new rates, energy inflation increased from 18 to 24 per cent. This was a direct burden on businesses and families.

Dr Muscat said that the price of fuel oil bought by Enemalta between August and October dropped by 28 per cent, that of gas oil by 22 per cent.

Moreover, the average cost of oil in October was practically the same as it had been in October last year. This was ample proof that the new tariffs were being introduced so that the government could cover up its waste of the past 20 years.

This showed that Labour, the party leader said, had a better economic vision for Malta. The question in all this, he said, was “where is Lawrence Gonzi, why is he not being clear”?

Dr Muscat said that the Labour Party completely agreement with Social Development Minister John Dalli’s statement in Parliament last Friday that the international crisis should not be used as an excuse for workers to be dismissed or to see their conditions deteriorating.

“On this, we agree with the minister completely. We have to work in a bipartisan manner in this sector,” he said.

The Labour leader expressed his solidarity with economist Edward Scicluna who, he said, was attacked because he criticised the government’s budget workings.

He referred to allegations that the personal details of people going to ministries, secretariats and government departments were being passed on to the Nationalist Party and said that the Prime Minister had a duty to declare was measures were being taken against those responsible for such espionage.

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