The Nationalist Party yesterday again called on the government to “stop robbing people” by keeping fuel prices artificially high and insisted on a cut in the cost of unleaded petrol and diesel.

As the international price of oil yesterday continued to drop, reaching the lowest level since 2009 at $64 a barrel, prices in Malta remained unchanged in contrast with the situation across the rest of the EU.

According to statistics issued by www.energy.eu (see table) – a renowned international portal – the average price of unleaded petrol in the EU now stands at €1.34 per litre, 10c cheaper than Malta’s, while diesel sells at €1.27, or 9c below Malta’s.

The government last night rubbished these figures, saying official European Commission statistics showed the average price in the EU standing at €1.42 and €1.29 for petrol and diesel respectively.

The government is blatantly deceiving people by giving them lower electricity rates and, at the same time, charging them extra for fuel

It also questioned why the PN was not citing official figures but those from a portal run by a commercial organisation independently of the Commission.

Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi last month justified the government’s position on the matter by stating that Malta’s pump prices were still cheaper than the EU average.

However, the situation has since changed, according to the PN figures, as the international price of oil continued to experience a free-fall, .

Addressing a press conference yesterday, PN finance spokesman Tonio Fenech accused the government of “daylight robbery” and said it was about time the government stopped using the artificial high price of fuel to subsidise the drop in the price of energy for consumers.

“The government is blatantly deceiving people by giving them lower electricity rates and, at the same time, charging them extra for fuel to compensate for Enemalta’s losses.”

Asked whether the government should revise its hedging policy, Mr Fenech said there first had to be an admission the price of fuel was locked incorrectly and at a high level.

“We are not fundamentally against hedging although we were always given advice that we should not hedge on such a volatile commodity,” he said.

He dubbed the government’s ‘excuse’ of resorting to hedging to have stable fuel pricing as amounting to “stable robbery.”

Energy spokesman George Pullicino said calculations made by independent experts for the PN indicated consumers were being charged 30 per cent more for unleaded fuel and 40 per cent more for diesel.

He sarcastically said such type of pricing allowed the government to not only be able to subsidise the reduction of energy tariffs but also claim phenomenal profits for Enemed, the new government company supplying fuel.

Latest EU fuel prices at pump per litre