The government should take advantage of the current low price of crude oil and reflect the difference in price to businesses and individual consumers through lower fuel and utility rates beyond the announced 25 per cent reduction for March in the case of energy, the Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry said.

It said fuel and energy costs accounted for a significant proportion of overhead costs and unjustified differences between prices locally and elsewhere were most detrimental to business especially for sectors such as imports and exports, freight forwarding, transport and distribution.

This situation also brought about indirect effects on the economy by raising the cost of living.

The chamber said that other European countries had been reducing fuel prices consistently in the last months. In the UK, various major supermarket chains reduced their petrol and diesel prices throughout the months of December and January up to 14 times.

It expressed preoccupation at the apparent price rigidities emerging in the past days where individual petrol stations were seemingly deterred from lowering their selling price by adjusting their profit margin.

The chamber said that an immediate reduction in the price of fuels and utility rates coupled with the falling value of the euro would have a windfall effect on Malta’s competitiveness and wouldlead to higher exports which would, in turn, boost economic growth.

This was a unique opportunity which should not be missed as the economic benefits could be significantly higher than the reduction in Government revenue.

The country might also be missing out on important investment opportunities due to pricing itself out of the competition.

The chamber said that while it appreciated that a degree of stability in fuel prices was important for businesses and industry, such stability should not hold the country’s competitiveness to ransom.