Opposition leader Joseph Muscat yesterday hit out at the Malta Resources Authority for failing to protect consumers from increasing gas prices.
Dr Muscat pointed out that the regulator had actually suggested even higher gas prices than those taken on by the gas companies themselves, after taking into consideration their required profits.
“I don’t know whether to laugh or cry,” Dr Muscat remarked, in an unusual pre-recorded radio address in which he rallied the troops for the Labour Party’s peaceful demonstration against the government to be held on Friday.
He said the regulator was using the same pricing mechanisms for gas that it was using in other areas, such as electricity, where there was no competition.
Listing the various increases in prices of fuel, milk, gas and other products, Dr Muscat stressed that while the Maltese paid European prices, they had to make do with non-European salaries.
Fluctuating prices were also breeding uncertainty, Dr Muscat said, since families and businesses could not plan their budgets properly. This meant people were holding back from spending while businesses were being forced to stop improving employment conditions or to charge their clients more for the same services and products.
“No one is denying that the increases are partly due to international prices but they are also due to the bad decisions taken at the wrong time by this incompetent government,” he said.
Dr Muscat said he was faced with a choice recently: either to accept a wage increase of €120,000 over five years or to stand shoulder to shoulder with struggling families.
“I am with you,” he said, patting himself on the back for refusing his “double salary” and criticising the Prime Minister for taking such an insensitive decision simply to favour his friends.
Dr Muscat added that if he were to gain the public’s faith and form a Labour government, he would ensure consumer rights were respected and keep government decisions widely open to scrutiny, particularly when it came to issues such as buying oil.
“If I am elected, I will be with you for five years, not just for the eve of the election. If there is a burden to shoulder, I will shoulder it with you and we will share the wealth our country creates.”
He warned people working in government agencies and not doing enough for the consumer, that a Labour government would demand explanations, even from those who had since left the organisations.
In response, the government and the Nationalist Party accused Dr Muscat of being superficial and ignoring the reality that all the country’s fuels were imported and that Malta was completely dependent on international prices.
The Finance Ministry said the government had given the public a number of incentives to be more energy-efficient and invest in renewable energy while giving energy vouchers to those in need. It added that the government had introduced competition in the gas sector, so prices were kept lower than those established by the regulator.