The Consumers’ Association has questioned the agreement reached between the Malta Resources Authority and petrol station owners and said that never before had trade sectors been compensated to reach the required standards.

In requesting a copy of the agreement, the association said it seemed that the deal would ultimately see the people covering most of the costs for petrol pumps to be upgraded.

The MRA, it said, should not to take such costs into consideration when calculating the price of fuel in future.

GAS AND TV CONTROVERSIES

On the gas situation, the association said the MRA should ensure a competitive market.

It argued that consumers should be refunded €25 for each cylinder returned (the equivalent of the deposit currently charged on new cylinders) and the distributors' licence should not be linked to specific localities.

The association also wrote to the Malta Communications Authority about the discontinuation of Comedy and Living transmissions.

It said it did not believe that the two stations had taken the necessary steps to obtain the necessary permits to ensure that their transmissions could continue.

Therefore the MCA should enable consumers who wanted to get out of their contract the possibility to do so.