The hike in the price of gas was more serious when seen against the background of other cost increases that corporate and domestic consumers had to endure in recent times, business and union bodies said in a first reaction to the newly announced prices.
Some preferred to analyse the situation before commenting but the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association, the General Workers' Union and the Chamber for Small and Medium Enterprises were in agreement when commenting on the effect of the increase.
The announcement, which came late on Thursday, saw the price of the commonly used LPG rise by more than 30 per cent after the Malta Resources Authority approved price increases for the only distributor on the island, Liquigas Malta Ltd.
A 10kg cylinder now costs €11.80, up from the previous price tag of €9 while the cost of a 12kg cylinder increased in price to €13.90 from €10.50.
A 15kg cylinder of LPG costs €17, up from €13, while a 25kg bottle now costs €27.30, up from €20.50.
MHRA president George Micallef said that, since last year, restaurants had received shock after shock, with the biggest one being the drastic increase in the cost of water and electricity.
These alone, he said, increased the operation costs of restaurants by 16 per cent. On top of this, there was also the cost of living adjustment which they had to pay, along with a 90 per cent hike in the cost of gas in April last year.
"These increases will continue putting more pressure on restaurants which are already finding it hard to make ends meet while remaining competitive. It is easy to say that the increase will be passed on to the consumer but this would have a knock-on effect on their competitiveness."
He said the association was carrying out an exercise to gauge the effect of the new prices especially at this time of year.
Similarly, GRTU director general Vince Farrugia said the gas price hike was "very serious", especially because it came at a time when gas distributors, who are represented by his organisation, were reporting a 25 to 30 per cent drop in sales of gas cylinders.
He said that over the past months, distributors had noticed that the average duration of gas cylinder use has increase by between seven and 10 days.
"The price of gas was increased when the demand is falling not increasing. For restaurants, the hike comes at a time when they are already being criticised for their prices. SMEs cannot afford to shoulder more burdens," he said.
Asked to comment on the regulator's estimate that the average domestic consumer would only see bills rise by €28, Mr Farrugia said he could not understand how the authority had reached the figure, saying the impact was "far more than that".
In the same vein, the General Workers' Union in a statement said the increase in the price of gas would add more pressure to more than 60,000 families living at the risk of poverty.
The union said it was disappointed with the way the government and its authorities were increasing such burdens for workers, their families and pensioners.
The Labour Party said families were now paying 155 per cent more than they did just over a year ago. This was an additional burden on Maltese and Gozitan families and businesses, Labour's spokesman on utilities, Marlene Pullicino, said.
She said this increase came exactly after the Nationalist government made people fork out another €30 million for water and electricity increases. Some of these families, she said, had not yet received their bills and this added to the uncertainty.