Utility tariffs should never have been raised- Muscat

lgalea

Jan 28th 2009, 07:33

Karl Abela
You must be living on the Moon or a hermit not to know that oil had even dropped to $36 per barrel.

A. Mizzi

Jan 27th 2009, 21:49

As the Maltese saying goes , it just appears that local W & E tariffs are just compiled by Uccuh bla-zejt , with no real care on the impact these bills will have on families and commercial enterprises.

The Malta Resources Authority should engage Deloitte and Touche to present Enemalta's Audited Accounts . That is the way forward.

Only than will we be convinced the calculation on the water and electricity surcharge is correct and is not skewed against the consumer.

wally vella-zarb

Jan 27th 2009, 19:24

@ Karl Abela

Kindly read the penultimate paragraph again:

"Dr Muscat said that Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt had promised that if the price of oil dropped to $85 a barrel, the surcharge would go down. However, even though the price of oil dropped to half that amount, the bills more than doubled."

The current price of Crude has been hovering between $43 and $46 per barrel since the beginning of December 2008 and has been constantly below $80 since 25 September 2008. It is therefore well below the threshold of $85 mentioned by Minister Gatt.

http://www.wtrg.com/daily/brentcrudeoilprice.html

michael fenech

Jan 27th 2009, 18:17

@ Karl Abela,

Mr Abela to be honest with you I’m surprised and disappointed that you’re never contested any election, because you like PM#2 A.Gatt seems to have an answer and a solution for all the problems we have in this country of ours. It is truly a shame.

Michael Attard

Jan 27th 2009, 16:51

Nobody in the whole wide world quotes the price of refined oil!! That is nobody, except the Maltese goverment of course and Dr Gonzi :)

EJ Formosa

Jan 27th 2009, 15:37

@Karl Abela
According to Blomberg.com at 8.38am the price of CRUDE OIL in New York was $44.72, so I guess you need to pull Dr Gatt's ears instead of being so quick defend the govt. My political beliefs are are pro Gonzi, yet I have the guts to criticise the govt for these anti social W & E bills. A small increase would have been acceptable to all. But shooting it up is utterly disgusting.

L. Grixti

Jan 27th 2009, 14:51

@ Karl Abela
Crude Oil - $44.68
http://www.oil-price.net/

Crude Oil (per Barrel) is what the general economy (that is the whole world) refer to as the Price of Oil. As far as I know, it was only last week that the PM mentioned that it was the Price of Refined Oil that we buy with that needs to go down, and when that one goes down, the tariffs will be reduced.

P.Schembri

Jan 27th 2009, 14:39

@K.Abela. Change your song please. The government never said if it's crude oil or refined. and if it's refined oil, how come diesel and petrol went down? Isn't that refined too, or we're putting crude oil in our cars?

lgalea

Jan 27th 2009, 14:11

Karl Abela
Did oil not drop even to $35 a couple of weeks ago?
Are you saying that it is not less than $85 per barrel?
My, my, you're not living on the Moon Karl, are you?

eric saliba

Jan 27th 2009, 13:30

@ karl abela. so joseph muscat is dumb as well now ?? don't you think that your playing on words will not help your cause? are you sure that PM2 did not mean olive oil by any chance? hallina karl !!

Karl Abela

Jan 27th 2009, 12:57

Austin Gatt was referring to CRUDE OIL not REFINED OIL.

Crude oil has not yet reached that price as yet. This should be very simple to understand but surprisingly enough Muscat is either dumb to understand this or is clever enough to mislead the whole population for his desperate need of popularity and votes.

I Abela

Jan 27th 2009, 12:45

Mr/Ms Allen, can you at least recognise who is lying in this case?

Darby Allen

Jan 27th 2009, 11:49

Politicians telling lies; whatever next?