The Prime Minister lost a golden opportunity to bring unity between the social partners and the government, and instead invited people to demonstrate, the Chamber for Small and Medium Enterprises -GRTU said.
In a letter addressed to Lawrence Gonzi, the chamber said that through Wednesday's speech in Parliament, the Prime Minister could have appealed to social partners to overcome the challenges ahead.
Instead, Dr Gonzi continued to insist on the water and electricity tariffs, which did not make sense and did not have the necessary realistic economic backing. "We appeal to you not to insist on it any more."
The GRTU proposed that the tariffs be introduced gradually over a period of five years.
It requested a meeting with the Prime Minister to present him with its proposals, saying now was the time for the government to invest a lot more to reinvigorate and restructure the economy.
The invitation was accepted promptly by the Prime Minister who published a letter he sent back to the chamber a few hours after the GRTU's letter reached the press.
However, the Prime Minister insisted that he could not agree that the capital investment on Enemalta should be postponed, as suggested by the GRTU.
The investment was needed on one hand to strengthen the energy generation capability of the corporation and on the other because it was a productive economic investment at a time when such injection is needed.
This was the government's declared strategy. "I have no problem borrowing money" for projects which are economically productive in the right measure and if the need arises, he said. But he stressed that the government had purposely chosen not to borrow money to subsidise consumption.
Still, the GRTU insisted in its letter that the tariffs were unjust with all sectors of Maltese enterprise and a heavy burden on families.
The country needs to become an "intelligence-based economy" rather than one filled with "muscle-based enterprise".
"We want you to be more courageous. We want you to change your strategy which has left us out of breath due to the limited ideas in the budget."
Why stop all financial support to Enemalta and the Water Services Corporation altogether, now, when enterprise is facing all these difficulties, the chamber asked.
It called for a proactive approach to turn the crisis into a time of opportunity and investment.
"This is a time of opportunity not just of fear," the letter concluded.