Utility tariffs should never have been raised- Muscat

The Prime Minister was not credible in saying that water and electricity rates could be reduced because they should not have been increased in the first place, Labour leader Joseph Muscat said.

He said that the Labour Party’s calculations were never denied by the government and according to these calculations the people should be paying a 35 per cent and not a 185 per cent surcharge.

He said that the government was refusing to audit Enemalta and publish its financial statements.

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 government had also not kept its word to revise tariffs if the price of oil moved by 15 per cent.