Updated | [WATCH] PN launches website that calculates ‘real fuel prices’

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The Nationalist Party has launched a website (www.dieselupetrol.com) aimed at calculating how much money the government 'steals' from people every time they purchase fuel.

The website asks users to key in how much money they spend on petrol every week and calculates how much extra they're being charged per week, month and year. This information is presented on a receipt entitled the “Taghna lkoll Fuel Station”.

“Excluding taxes, fuel prices are higher in Malta than they are in all 28 EU member states,” shadow energy minister Marthese Portelli said at the website’s launch.  “In the last six months international oil prices have plummeted, yet Maltese citizens continue to pay the same prices for their fuel.”

The PN has argued that the prices of petrol and diesel in Malta do not reflect the unprecedented plummeting of global oil prices. Oil was over the $100 per barrel mark six months ago, but has now plummeted to an unprecedented $44 after OPEC nations, mainly Saudi Arabia, opened up stocks to the market.

Citing EU statistics, Portelli said that fuel prices in other member states had fallen drastically.

“In Austria, the prices of diesel and petrol have fallen by 24% and 20% respectively since December 2011,” she said.  “On the other hand, Maltese people are paying an extra €0.41 per litre of diesel and an extra €0.45 per litre of petrol than they use to back March 2009, when international oil prices were on the same level as they are today. Whereas in March 2009 the prices of petrol and diesel were €0.97 and €0.94 per litre respectively, prices have now gone up to €1.42 and €1.35 respectively.”

Shadow justice minister Jason Azzopardi urged the government to stick to its pre-electoral promises of “transparency” and  “honesty” and reiterated his party’s call to the government to publish its contracts of sales for fuel and explain why prices haven’t gone down.

“The reason Malta’s prices are so high could be that the government’s hedging agreement has gone horribly wrong,” Azzopardi said. “It could also be that there is no such agreement, and that the government is deliberately stealing money from the public.”

Government reaction

On its part, the government claims that fuel prices have fallen “consistently” since Labour was elected.

“Between March 2008 and March 2013, the price of petrol increased by 39c a litre while diesel went up by 36c a litre – nine times the rate of the increase in the price of oil,” the energy ministry said. “The rise in energy bills was 17 times that of the international price of oil.”

The government defended its hedging policy on fuels, and said it had secured a 25% cut in energy bills to leave more disposable income in people’s pockets.

“It is ironic for the Opposition to lecture on the price of fuel at a time when the scandal of fuel procurement from the previous administration wipes away all credibility it might have in this subject.”