Muscat insists fuel prices should have fallen

While the government was planning to reduce petrol and diesel prices in January and February, such reductions should have been applied a long time ago, as had happened in other European countries, Labour leader Joseph Muscat said.

Speaking at a political activity in Qormi, Dr Muscat said that while Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt had said that if oil prices dropped below $85 per barrel, he would reduce the surcharge, the government was now raising the surcharge to 185 percent even though oil prices slid to $43, half of what they were when Dr Gatt made his promise.

It was very clear, Dr Muscat said, that the people were being asked to pay for the government's inefficiency and was trying to grapple with the deficit, which had exploded to three times projections.