The Labour Party is encouraged by the government’s reaction to its energy plan which showed that the tariffs could be reduced, leader Joseph Muscat said this evening.

Speaking during a Business Forum, Dr Muscat also announced that a Labour government would help households and businesses plan better by giving them the opportunity to choose when to receive their bills - every month, three months or six months.

One of the main complaints the party had from both residential and business customers, he said, was the irregularity in bills which was resulting in uncertainty.

Dr Muscat said that while the government first initially said that tariffs could not be reduced, it later said Labour’s proposal was a gimmick and then that it would take it upon itself to reduce tariffs. It was now saying that Labour’s proposal required more time and money to deliver.

Labour disagreed but there was now an implicit recognition that something could be done, he said.

Dr Muscat said businesses would benefit from the reductions and also from increased spending money for customers.

PL candidate Konrad Mizzi, the front man of the PL’s energy plan, said Labour’s proposals would not incentivise waste and people who consumed less would pay less.

Later Dr Muscat went to near the Tigulio in St Julian’s where he was greeted by young people in an activity organised by the Forum Zghazagh Laburisti.

Dr Muscat said he longed for the day when Labourites would celebrate Independence Day and Nationalists Freedom Day.

The best chapters of Maltese history, he said, were written when the Maltese were united as one people.

He said there were several Labourites who were hurt in the 1960s and several PN supporters who were physically hurt in the 1980s and said this was behaviour which should be condemned.

Dr Muscat said that there was more to life than elections and more important events such as one’s wedding day and, God Willing, the civil union day.

Politics, he said, had to be taken in context and should not be the be all and end all.

Politics should be about improving the nation, about unity and not differences and that was why the PL’s election theme ‘Malta for all’ encapsulated everything.

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