With A no thorns budget (TMID 1 November), a sigh of relief felt by many is not fully justified when taking into account the current situation concerning higher fuel prices. Such state of affairs should have been subsidised over a three-year period, so that the prices would have recovered to the point where the rollover situation once again may be maintained.

Inevitably, the petrol and electricity price hike will cause a “domino effect”. Take, taxis, for instance. What effect will the new charges have, when local taxi costs are already among the highest in Europe?

It also means less money in our pockets. When the price of fuel goes up, everything goes up. Once prices increase, it is very rare that they come down again. These prices have been increasing throughout the year. What about restaurants, hoteliers, supermarkets, corner shops, butchers, etc? These are all going to raise their prices, and this means that it is not just petrol and electricity that will go up!

Our Prime Minister used to cherish preaching about social conscience and social justice. Indeed, Dr Lawrence Gonzi may say that the general local situation may have improved, illustrating an example that more people are going abroad to enjoy holidays than ever before. Doesn’t the Prime Minister know that such holidays are the fruit of painstaking personal sacrifices and hard work?

It is not fair and just to burden taxpayers and consumers so hard in order to make amends for bad planning, poor foresight and lack of sound judgement from whoever is responsible to forecast, plan and avoid such an unwanted situation.

Many pensioners are extremely worried that they will not be able to make good and pay the additional price hikes. They hardly can make ends meet at the moment, let alone when they receive bills with new tariff rates!

Statistics show that since we joined the European Union, prices have continued to rise steeply.

Isn’t this thorny enough?

Martin Vella

Kalkara