The Cabinet of Ministers is expected to take a decision today on how to finance next year’s fuel bill of Lm50 million. Whether the government announces its decision this afternoon or it waits until Monday, Budget Day, will not make much difference because the Gonzi administration has little room in which to manoeuvre and few options from which to choose.

The rise in the international price of oil is one of the reasons why the country’s fuel bill next year will rise by Lm36 million. Add to that amount the losses incurred by Enemalta this year and the next, and you get the nice round figure of Lm50 million.

One way or another, the bill has to be paid. How? That is what we hope to find out this afternoon or by Monday at the latest. What is easier to predict is who will pay the bill. Whatever the Cabinet decides to do today, the consumer is going to feel the pinch once more. Even if the government – as the Prime Minister hinted at the PN’s national council on Sunday – will carry part of the burden, such a move is only cosmetic.

To what extent our water and electricity bills are going up, or what we will have to pay for our petrol and diesel, depends on the size of the government’s share of the burden. Yet, this is only half the picture. Let’s take the hypothetical situation where the

government absorbs 30 per cent of the bill, approximately Lm15 million. Where is the money going to come from?

The Treasury has little to spare, so the Lm30 million will have to be borrowed. That means the country’s debt will go up again. If the government pays off its share, then the country’s fiscal deficit will go up. Hence, the only option is to either increase taxation on income, increase VAT or introduce some other form of indirect taxation. Conclusion: the consumer will still have to pay the government’s share.

The Lm50 million hole is one of many that exist in the government’s finances. Dr Gonzi and his team are bound by EU rules to bring down the deficit by at least another Lm25 million this year. Next year, therefore, the government has to increase its revenue by Lm75 million. Who is going to pay? There is no doubt that it will be the Maltese taxpayer who will have to foot the bill.

Those are the facts. Now, who is to blame?

The government, Enemalta, the MCESD? Well, to be fair, all three are to be blamed for what is happening.

The government and Enemalta, TMID believes, left matters a little bit too late. It was evident that the price of oil would continue to go up. Was it not possible to purchase more oil reserves at a time when the price was lower than it is today?

Third on the list is the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development (MCESD). Granted, they were given the full story at the last minute, but the council has failed to come up with any decent solution. Minister Austin Gatt is reported to have described the council as a “debating shop” and said that each partner was solely interested in protecting his own sectoral interests. The members of the MCESD are all for consultation, but when it comes to hard facts and decision-making, they quickly wash their hands, lest they be accused of failing their members.

If anyone has the right to point fingers, it is the Maltese taxpayer who has been let down, time and time again, by those who should be proposing solutions instead of squabbling with the government around a table.

In the meantime, the hardworking people of Malta can spend the next few days calculating how much more they are going to have to pay for fuel and other essential services. Whatever the Cabinet decides today, we just hope that the burden will be spread fairly and evenly. That is the least the government can do at this stage.