Talks over the gas strike ended in deadlock yesterday as the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises – GRTU kept insisting on its members’ exclusive right to distribute LPG cylinders. Talks will, however, continue for a possible deal to be struck today.
GRTU director general Vince Farrugia emerged from a two-hour meeting saying the talks had been inconclusive. Later in the evening, gas distributors decided to continue with the strike, which comes as cylinder sales traditionally peak due to cold weather.
Gas distributors said Liquigas wanted its products to be distributed separately from others. Newcomer Easygas, which is set to enter the market this week, said it had no problem with having a shared system.
The GRTU is asking the government to either keep the unique distributor system or else pay compensation to the gas distributors, to the tune of €6 million, the sum the GRTU’s accountant estimated the distributors would lose if their territory was taken away from them.
Present for the talks, held at the Resources Ministry in Floriana, were representatives of the Malta Resources Authority, Liquigas and the GRTU.
The GRTU claimed the government had backed its stand on a unified system for “various reasons”, including environmental and traffic concerns.
“In the past, we had only one gas producer but we might end up in a situation where we have 10 sets of trucks roaming the streets,” Mr Farrugia said, trying to make the case for the system as it stood.
The government would not confirm it backed the GRTU. However, after the meeting it said the MRA had made a proposal to “keep improving” the present distribution system to give consumers a better service while “reducing, as much as possible, the environmental impact”.
Liquigas reiterated its position that “that competition is encouraged at all stages of the distribution chain and market forces should be allowed to play their part”.
The strike, halting all distribution of gas tanks, comes at a particularly sensitive time, where gas cylinders would be in higher demand both for cooking and heating purposes. The widespread power cut yesterday would also focus more attention on gas use.
Asked why the strike was held so close to Christmas, Mr Farrugia said this was an unfortunate coincidence but insisted the timing was linked to Easygas entering the market this week.
“If this had happened in November, we would have taken action in November,” he said.
The Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry said it was perturbed by the fact that companies that invested millions of euros in Malta were being told they were not allowed to distribute their own product.
It said its “concern is that, following the privatisation of the gas sector two years ago, a monopolistic situation may still be allowed to prevail, which defeats the purpose of privatisation and the potential for business development and competitiveness, not to mention a more efficient service for consumers”. The chamber insisted the prevailing state of affairs should be “rectified immediately”.
It accused the GRTU of acting outside its remit as an employers’ association and called on it to act with responsibility towards the whole country rather than consider only the interests of a small group of people “who refuse to realise the realities within which we are operating today”.