On January 27, 2015, Mario Camilleri, owner of M&N Camilleri filling station in Rabat, Malta, decided to sell his diesel at €1.33 per litre, which was two cents less than the current price.

But Camilleri did not sell a single litre of diesel at the reduced price, because he was pressured by the Falzon Group, importers of San Lucian diesel, not to sell his diesel at a lower price.

Sixty weeks have passed since then, but the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority (MCCAA) is still asleep and has failed to provide a remedy to Maltese consumers as it is legally obliged to do.

There is no doubt that had Camilleri been allowed to sell his diesel at two cents less, all the other fuel stations that bought diesel from the Falzon Group would have done the same; otherwise they would not have sold their supplies.

In such circumstances, all the other fuel stations would have done the same as well, including those who sold diesel imported by Enemed Company Limited, the State-owned company, because they too would have found it difficult to sell their supplies.

In other words, Maltese consumers of diesel fuel would have saved more than €2 million in the course of the past 60 weeks, judging by the amount of diesel imported by Enemed alone.

When the Malta Automobile Club wrote to the European Commission to complain about the absence of competition in the local fuel market, the Commission referred the club to the MCCAA.

What the European Commission does not seem to know is that the MCCAA is led by long-serving, loyal civil ‘servants’ whose main objective appears to be to safeguard the interests of their ‘master’ – the government – and not the interests of consumers.

The argument about price stability is a joke. Everybody can peg the prices above what they should be

Sixty weeks is more than enough time for the MCCAA to offer a remedy to the local consumers of diesel about the non-competitive nature of the local fuel market.

Two months ago, the MCCAA is reported to have initiated ‘infringement proceedings’ concerning the complaint made a year before that a cartel was operating in the sale of fuel at the pumps.

What exactly is the director general at the MCCAA waiting for to reach a decision about this matter? Is 60 weeks not enough?

If the MCCAA wishes to save face, it might be better to come to a conclusion on this matter before the petition submitted by the Malta Automobile Club is discussed by the European Parliament. If the Minister for Energy believes that by reducing the price of petrol by 4c and the price of diesel by 6c he is going to impress anybody, apart from a few of the faithful of his own party, he is grossly mistaken.

First of all, in spite of the reductions, the prices of petrol and diesel are still above the EU 28 weighted average.

It is useless for the minister to refer to the times of the PN administration. In April 2009, when the international price of oil was more or less the same as it is now, the price of petrol in Malta was €1.06 per litre, while the price of diesel was 95c per litre.

This means that the price of petrol today is 22 cents higher than seven years ago, and the price of diesel is 21 cents higher.

The argument about price stability is a joke. Everybody can peg the prices above what they should be. Consumers are not interested in the stability of prices when this means paying 22 cents more for petrol or 21 cents more for diesel.

The Ministry for Energy and its company Enemed are acting like a greedy businessman, considering that over the past three months the government has already collected €35.6 million in duties and taxes from petrol and diesel.

And this amount does not include the duties and taxes on the sale of diesel by the Falzon Group and the other private company.

The election may be two years away, but unless the government starts refunding the extra profits accrued by Enemed during the past year, consumers are not likely to forget how much money they have been short-changed.

The importation, storage and wholesale of petrol and diesel should not remain in the hands of Enemed, which is abusing its dominant position in the local market.

The government would still collect exceedingly high amounts in duties and taxes, even if petrol and diesel were imported, stored and sold by the local representatives of foreign oil companies.

Alfred Farrugia is president of the Malta Automobile Club

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