The declaration made in Parliament by the Prime Minister on Tuesday shows that the government has increased its subsidies to Enemalta Corporation by €14 million to €40 million, the Nationalist Party said in a statement today.

This confirms what the Opposition has been saying all along - that the government's energy plan has failed. This plan was based on the completion of the new gas power station in March, which project went off track by 15 months. This means that the lowering of energy tariffs is being financed through other taxes pumped into Enemalta as subsidies.

It is not true that there is a European Union directive obliging the government to pay subsidies to Enemalta, as the PM had said. The directive in question gives the government or the regulator the chance to impose conditions on operators with reserve capacity, and does not impose on the government to pay for this. Neither does this directive impose on the government the same obligations or arrangements that are imposed on the operators.

This directive has been in place since 2006 and the government has never paid such an obligation to Enemalta, and no procedures were opened against the government for not doing so, the PN said.

This is just an excuse by Joseph Muscat to hide his financial plan for Enemalta which came about after its power station plan did not materialise on time. Savings lost in a year will amount to €187 million, or €234 million in 15 months.

Dr Muscat, who did not keep his promise to resign if the power station project was not completed in two years after the election, cannot be believed, the PN said.

In reply, the government said that the Nationalist Opposition has been caught in a contradiction. The difference between the two sides is that the government is serious in its accounting.

As from this year, the government will be refunding the difference between the expenses of generating electricity and the feed-in tariff of renewale energy. If the government had retained the system previously used by the Nationalist administration its obligations to Enemalta would have been €51 million in 2015 and €70 million in 2020. This was not sustainable, the government said.

In yet another statement, the Nationalist Party challenged Dr Muscat to quote the directive he is referring to. It insisted that the €14 million being granted to Enemalta in subsidy are being given to make up for the government'a failure in the energy sector.