In spite of a sharp drop in international oil prices, consumers were still paying through the nose to buy fuel due to the government’s decision to freeze prices until the end of the year, the Nationalist Party said yesterday.

Last April, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat announced a two cent reduction in petrol and a freeze in fuel prices until the end of 2014.

In a statement, the PN noted that the current price of oil was in the same level of September 2010, when its market price was in the region of $80 a barrel.

Back then, diesel cost 30 cents less per litre, whereas petrol was 24 cents cheaper, the PN said.

In view of the decline in the price of oil and the repeated government statements that the economy was doing well, it was only fair for families to expect a downward revision of fuel prices.

In response, the government noted that fuel prices in the past 12 months were below international market prices and led to a reduction in the inflation rate.

It said the PN’s argument was “technically incorrect” as it only considered the price at one particular moment in time, while ignoring the lower prices in previous months.

The PN was also wrong because it was citing the price of unrefined oil while ignoring the exchange rate, the government said.