Local domestic electricity rates are the fourth cheapest in the European Union and the second cheapest in the eurozone, the government said on Wednesday, quoting Eurostat. 

It issued the statement to stress how local tariffs have gone down, as controversy continues to rage on arrangements having been made for payments from a secret company belonging to one of the owners of the power station to secret companies owned by Konrad Mizzi, the minister formerly responsible for energy, and chief of staff Keith Schembri. 

In its statement, the government said that only households in Lithuania have cheaper electricity tariffs than Malta among the eurozone countries.

In the first half of this year, the tariff in Malta was 60% lower than the eurozone average - -€0.129 kWh in Malta to €0.219 kWh in the eurzone.

The government pointed out that whereas between 2008 and 2013 tariffs went up by 68% in Malta compared to 26% in the EU, in the past five years it reduced them by an average of 23% at a time when they went up by 2.5% in the rest of the EU.

The reduction of electricity tariffs in the past five years was the second steepest after Cyprus. 

The government also observed that electricity tariffs for industry in the last five years of the former government went up by 47 per cent compared to an increase of 24 per cent in the rest of Europe. As a result, local prices were 28% higher than the EU average. 

But in the past five years, the local tariffs went down by 25 per cent, compared to a drop of just 5 per cent in the rest of the EU. As a result, the local tariff was now equal to that of the EU average and below that of the eurozone.

The local energy policy was benefiting the economy, not least by lowering inflation and making industry more competitive, the government said.