Government slams Opposition for quoting 'unofficial' fuel prices

The government accused the opposition of using information from an unofficial website to justify its ‘false’ calculations on fuel prices.

“The figures quoted by the Opposition come from an unofficial website and differ to the European Commission’s scientific figures,” the government said in a statement. “The Opposition should explain why they are using figures found on the Internet while ignoring the European Commission’s calculations.”

According to the European Commission, the EU average retail price of petrol is €1.45 per litre while the average retail price of diesel is €1.32.

However, according to ‘Europe’s Energy Portal’, an independent commercial organisation that claims to have ‘strong roots’ within the EU, the EU average retail price of petrol is €1.36 per litre while that of diesel is €1.29. The website also shows that, excluding taxes, the price of petrol in Malta is €0.71 per litre and that of diesel is €0.73 per litre. In both cases, the website ranks them as higher rates than in any other EU member states.

Using these statistics, petrol would cost €1.31 per litre if it was bought at the EU average and €1.14 if it was bought at the rate Sweden buys it.

Citing these latter statistics, the PN accused the government on Friday of hiding taxes on fuel that haven’t been approved in Parliament and challenged them to publish their contracts of sales for fuel. 

“Since the Opposition now believes that the price of petrol and diesel, excluding taxes, should be on par with Sweden’s, they should explain why the price of petrol, excluding taxes in Malta was 7% higher than it was in Sweden at the beginning of March 2013,” the government said.

They went on to criticise former Finance Minister Tonio Fenech for raising the prices of petrol and diesel by 39c and 30c to €1.48 and €1.38 respectively between 2008 and 2013.