The government should have cut petrol and diesel prices long ago rather than wait until January and February, Labour leader Joseph Muscat said yesterday.

Speaking during an activity in Qormi, he quoted Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt saying he would reduce the surcharge should oil prices drop below $85 a barrel. Even though oil prices fell to $43 a barrel, the government was raising the surcharge to 185 per cent.

Dr Muscat said it is clear people were being made to pay for the government's inefficiency.

The government was trying to grapple with the deficit, now three times over its projections.