Motorists will have to wait until January for a drop in the prices of petrol and diesel with the Prime Minister defending the government’s policy of keeping stability.
The price revisions will be announced in tonight’s Budget, Joseph Muscat said yesterday.
But his statement appears to conflict with the impression given by Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi last month that prices would be reduced “in the coming weeks”.
Dr Mizzi had told the Times of Malta that petrol and diesel prices would be revised downwards since Enemed, the State fuel company, had some hedges that would expire.
But Dr Muscat yesterday told supporters at the Birżebbuġa Labour Party club the government’s policy to go for stability had removed the anxiety motorists had under the previous administration when fuel revisions took place every month.
The Labour government has consistently lowered the price of petrol and diesel since 2013 but has come under fire over the past 12 months as the price of oil dropped to around $40 per barrel. For the first time, at the end of last month the price of petrol in Malta was higher than the EU average.
Dr Muscat used the occasion to go through a list of his government’s achievements.
He said that through the Individual Investor Programme, Malta would for the first time build up its equivalent of a sovereign fund.
The citizenship scheme has already raked in €75 million, money that will be administered through a national development fund.
Dr Muscat announced that former Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry president David Curmi would head the fund.
He will be joined by the chairman of the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development, John Bencini, former Central Bank of Malta governor Michael Bonello, economist Karm Farrugia and former Labour candidate Maria Camilleri.
Describing Simon Busuttil as “Mr Standards”, Dr Muscat said the onus fell on the Opposition leader to take action against Nationalist MP Claudio Grech for not telling the truth about his connection to a pardoned rogue oil trader.
Dr Muscat accused Mr Grech of lying to Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee when he testified that he had only met oil trader George Farrugia in 2012. “From email correspondence revealed this morning [yesterday] in Malta Today it results the PN MP had friendly exchanges with George Farrugia as far back as 2006… the ball is now in the court of Mr Standards,” Dr Muscat said.
Mr Farrugia turned in State evidence in a case involving bribery and corruption at Enemalta over oil purchases. The PAC is scrutinising past fuel buying practices.
Mr Grech yesterday reiterated he had no recollection of the email exchange, among the thousands of emails he used to receive every month. He was serving in minister Austin Gatt’s secretariat at the time. He said he genuinely believes what he stated was the truth to the best of his knowledge.
kurt.sansone@timesofmalta.com