Two government ministers - Austin Gatt and Tonio Fenech, were not agreeing on why the government retained the water and electricity surcharge at 50 percent in the first six months of the year, Opposition leader Charles Mangion said.

He said that while Dr Gatt had said in November that Enemalta had been in a position to keep the surcharge at 50 per cent up to June because of hedging agreements, in a statement last week Mr Fenech said that the government had passed on €37 million to Enemalta in subsidies for the surcharge to be retained at 50 per cent.

Dr Mangion said that this questioned the success of the hedging agreements Dr Gatt had boasted about and created doubts on the professionalism of the budget estimates for this year.

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