MCESD agreement on tariffs last year a ‘mise en scene’ – Vince Farrugia
Charlot Zahra A year after the electricity tariffs were introduced, Small Business Chamber (GRTU) Director-General Vince Farrugia has described the Government’s presentation of the electricity tariffs to the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development, and the subsequent ‘agreement reached with social partners’ last October, as a “messa in scena” (mise en scene).
Presenting the GRTU’s proposals for the forthcoming Budget speech on Monday, Farrugia spoke about the likelihood of a new water and electricity hike following Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi’s hint on Sunday that the utility bills would have to increase in view of the recent increase in oil prices.
“We are worried because we are projecting that there will be an increase in utility tariffs, and we cannot shoulder it,” he said. “He (Gatt) says there was an agreement in the MCESD. But in reality he came and told us: ‘We’re going to do this’, and we only had two to three days to comment – a ‘messa in scena’ like the one which took place in the MCESD last year.”
However, there was “a published formula on which the international fuel prices are factored into the tariff, and the tariff almost invariably increases,” Farrugia added.
“One does not have to be a genius to see how international oil prices have increased in the past six months when compared to the previous six months,” the GRTU chief said. “Indeed, the price of oil has increased significantly since last April, and according to those prices, the utility tariffs should go up.”
“Will he increase them?” Farrugia asked. “On Sunday he gave us an indication that he was going to increase them.”
Asked by Business Today about Opposition leader Joseph Muscat’s suggestion to establish a maximum ceiling for the utility tariffs, Farrugia shot down that proposal.
“No I dot think that we can do a ceiling because at the end, something has to give,” he added.
Chamber of Commerce ‘walks out’ Meanwhile, in a further twist, the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry (MCCEI) has announced that it had ‘walked out’ of the pre-Budget discussions that have been underway in the MCESD for the past three months.
Addressing a press conference yesterday morning, MCCEI President Helga Ellul slammed the MCESD pre-budget document as “unsustainable”, and one that “cannot be endorsed”.
She also claimed that if the proposed €6.06 COLA increase went ahead as proposed in the 2010 Budget, “hundreds of jobs” would be lost.
“Malta has still not emerged from economic uncertainty and the safeguarding of jobs is the top-most priority for the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry,” Ellul insisted.
This entailed, she added, “the safeguarding of national competitiveness and the sustainability of locally-based business, both large and small”.
This year, the MCESD had produced a common Pre-Budget position to the Government following one-to-one meetings with the social partners by Gordon Cordina.
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