The government should immediately lower the price of fuel and energy and not continue to find all possible excuses to postpone a revision, Nationalist Party leader Simon Busuttil told the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development this morning.

In a meeting to discuss the party's pre-budget document, Dr Busuttil said that now that the prices of petrol and diesel in Malta were higher than the EU average, the government should give consumers a fair deal that would refled international oil prices.

For the first time since the last revision of fuel prices last April, the price of petrol and diesel at Maltese pumps has surpassed the EU average.

“The government used to argue that despite the falling oil prices we were still better off than the EU average. Now that excuse is not there any longer.”

The price of petrol in the EU is €1.34 a litre this week, one cent a litre lower than in Malta, while diesel in the EU is 8c a litre cheaper than in Malta.

Dr Busuttil said the PN would continue to back a proposal by the GRTU for a downward revision of the price of electricity.

He said that since the last revision in March last year, circumstances changed drastically with Enemalta being able to buy cheaper electricity through the interconnector and the price of all falling by 55 per cent.

“All this makes it obvious that consumers are being short changed.”

Dr Busuttil said the PN has become the first party in Opposition to produce a pre-budget document.

He said that although the Opposition has no intention of dictating what the government should do in the budget, the document helped stimulate debate with the civil society and put the Opposition’s options and suggestions on the table.

The PN, he said, was positive in its politics, even from the Opposition.

 

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.