If the cost of fuel in Malta followed international price movements, petrol would be 16c cheaper and not just 6c, Labour leader Joseph Muscat said yesterday.

The price of diesel should have gone down by 11c and not just 2c and even if, as Enemalta said, the last diesel consignment was imported in April/May, prices should still have been cut by 4c, Dr Muscat said in a short phone-in during a One Radio show.

The same situation applied to LPG, he said, arguing that the price of gas earlier this year rose in Malta faster than abroad and it was now down only slightly.

However, Dr Muscat said he would not be surprised if power tariffs went down when the election approached, with the government now having realised that prices could be reduced.

The latter was a dig at criticism by the Nationalist Party that Labour’s pledge to cut the price of electricity was not feasible.