News | Sunday, 21 December 2008

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Electricity bills unaffected by fuel price reduction

Fuel service stations consider strike action

The reduction in car fuel prices from tomorrow as announced by the government yesterday is “totally unrelated” to the soaring water and electricity bills, which remain unaffected by the new price of oil, a spokesman for Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt said yesterday.
In a surprise announcement, Gatt’s ministry said unleaded petrol and lead replacement petrol will go down by €0.25 per litre from tomorrow, diesel will go down by €0.24 and kerosene by €0.30. Light heating oil will go down by €0.16. Thin fuel oil used by industry will also go down substantially.
Meanwhile, petrol service stations will be discussing possible strike action today as they claim they will lose money from the reduction because of have large amounts of fuel allegedly bought under old prices.
The fuel price reduction comes weeks after other countries lowered their prices for consumers, but despite widespread expectations and calls from the Labour Party to withdraw the new energy bills, it will not affect utility tariffs.
“Electricity tariffs are only revised every six months, not through a press release,” Gatt’s spokesman said yesterday.
A ministry statement said the price reductions came about after the last consignments of fuel were bought at market prices, after an agreement negotiated by Enemalta had expired in May. The agreement had kept diesel and petrol prices stable in an unstable market, government claimed.
Reacting to the news, the Labour Party said the reductions were expected from October, adding that the government’s announcement came much later than the actual drastic reduction in the international price of oil.
“Consumers would be benefiting from even lower prices of petrol and diesel had the government not introduced a new tax in the last budget,” the Labour Party said. “While welcoming announcement, despite being late, the PL now expects government to withdraw the new water and electricity bills.”

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