Increases in fuel costs should not have been approved - GRTU

The government should not have approved the increase in the price of fuels considering the current economic situation, the Chamber for Small and Medium Enterprises, GRTU, said.

It said in a statement that many small businesses had not yet recovered from the recession and a number of enterprises were not to reopen following the summer shut down.

Director general Vince Farrugia said that all the talk on inflation and price control seemed to apply just to the small businessmen. When it came to Enemalta, public regulators did not seem to care.

At a time when all businesses were reducing prices to remain in the market, businesses could pass on the increase to consumers.

A GRTU survey among its members showed that they were being targeting from all sides.

Although the chamber cooperated for solutions to be found, there could not be a situation where the strong reigned to the detriment of others.

The government should help by pushing consumption to keep the expenditure levels strong, to make up for the lower expenditure from the private sector.

But this was not done. The increases did not show that those who were guiding the economy knew what they were doing.

At such times, the GRTU expected much better. It expected to be consulted by the regulator. The regulator was supposed to study and calculate the economic impact of increases proposed by Enemalta and come up with its recommendations. These were also supposed to be published.

The government had to understand there was a problem and those who were responsible had to tackle it in an intelligent manner, Mr Farrugia said.