Finance Minister Edward Scicluna has ruled out any further cuts in water and electricity tariffs even though the international price of oil has fallen by 55 per cent since the last revision.

“Enemalta is in convalescence and a further cut in consumer prices would put the government’s plans in jeopardy,” he said during a press conference yesterday called in reaction to the PN’s proposals for the next Budget.

Enemalta is still producing energy through the burning of heavy fuel oil, after the new gas power station was not delivered as promised last March. Tariffs were revised down by 25 per cent in March 2014 but since then the price of oil on the international markets has more than halved.

Asked to state how much Enemalta is paying for its fuel, Prof. Scicluna said that he did not want to go into this issue.

Enemalta has not published its financial statements and accounts since 2011

“We have set tariffs for the next 25 years which also include a component to repay more than €300 million in outstanding debts. We cannot afford to touch this for the time being,” he said.

Enemalta has not published its financial statements and accounts since 2011.

Countering criticism that the government has employed thousands of new public service employees, Minister Scicluna said that these were needed as many of them were doctors, nurses and educators.

Asked to give a breakdown of the 2,552 employees the government has recruited, Prof. Scicluna said he did not have the figures.

During the press conference, Prof. Scicluna harshly criticised the pre-budget suggestions made by the Opposition, calling the exercise “amateurish, misleading and factually incorrect”.

“I call on the Opposition to withdraw this document as it does not reflect well on its authors”, he said.

Surrounded by civil servants and consultants, Prof. Scicluna gave a laptop presentation highlighting the “various mistakes” in the data tables presented by the Opposition.

He said that the document showed that the Opposition did not know how to analyse the economy. Reacting, PN deputy leader Mario De Marco described the government’s reaction as “negative” and accused Prof. Scicluna of trying to ridicule the Opposition.