GRTU has no faith in resources authority

The Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises (GRTU) does not trust the Resources Authority even though it will be meeting the energy regulator on Monday to discuss its complaints on the new utility tariffs.

Addressing the media after yesterday's meeting of the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development in Castille, GRTU Director-General Vince Farrugia insisted that the energy bills should go down immediately, reflecting the drop in the price of oil.

His comments came after The Times yesterday revealed how the current market price for fuel oil and gasoil, the type used in Enemalta's power plants, has dropped by 39 per cent since October.

He said it made no sense that the price of oil was dropping and utility tariffs were on a downward trend the world all over but not in Malta.

"Do we really want to hold this record?" he asked. Government should shoulder full responsibility for the tariffs, Mr Farrugia insisted.

The government had said when it announced the new bills that it would revise its prices every six months or when the price of oil fluctuates by more than 15 per cent. When it was asked to react to The Times's findings, the Infrastructure Ministry denied there was even a 15 per cent fluctuation in the price of oil which would have meant a revision of the energy rates.

Mr Farrugia heavily criticised the situation. "We are now being sent to the Resources Authority, which legally cannot do anything without the Minister's approval. That same Minister is sitting on a Cabinet that approved the higher utility tariffs. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. The government put up the tariffs and it should be the government that reduces them," Mr Farrugia said.

Asked whether he trusted the Resources Authority, the director general answered with a plain "no".

"Unfortunately, I have to go to the regulator because that is the only tool the government has put at my disposal," he said.

The GRTU is insisting that the new tariffs were an unnecessary distraction at a time when everybody's focus should be on the economic recession.

Meanwhile, the Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin (UHM) yesterday called for the tariffs to be revised downwards "to reflect the actual price of oil".

The union insisted that any downward revisions should be announced "in the shortest time possible" rather than in the "immediate future" as declared by the Prime Minister on Sunday.

The UĦM's statement came two days before 11 unions are to meet the authority over the workings used by Enemalta to arrive at the rates.