Labour leader Alfred Sant has, for the second time, changed his policy on the fuel surcharge, the Investment, Industry and Information Technology Ministry said in a statement yesterday.

The ministry extracted part of a recording of a speech delivered by Dr Sant last Sunday and quoted him as saying that: “We will remove the surcharge from utility bills”.

According to the ministry, originally Dr Sant did not want to accept that the international price of oil had been increasing. Rather, the Labour leader gave a number of irrelevant reasons regarding the hiking prices.

Among the various reasons, Dr Sant had spoken about inefficiencies at Enemalta Corporation. He had also mentioned that Enemalta’s contract to purchase oil had not been renewed, the ministry said.

In this context, Dr Sant had criticised the government for having introduced the surcharge, implying that had the Labour Party been in government, this would not have happened.

The ministry added that a few months later, Dr Sant acknowledged that the surcharge was necessary and that should the MLP be elected to government, the surcharge would not be removed completely, but it would be reduced by half.

This was Dr Sant’s promise, but the truth is that he never made it clear which half he was referring to – whether it was half the difference in the price of oil that is financed by the surcharge, or half the subsidised rate that is paid by consumers. He could have also been referring to half the rate that was paid by consumers had there not been any subsidy on the surcharge, the ministry said.

The Labour leader has now made his policy quite clear by changing it entirely as he declared that the surcharge will be removed completely.

This is a declaration providing a very clear idea of the Opposition’s financial policy, said the ministry. Taking into consideration today’s prices, the government will have to put aside Lm40 million (EUR93.17 million) to finance such a decision and this estimate reflects today’s prices, which are unstable and may vary over time.

Dr Sant has an ethical obligation to say how he will finance this amount of money on a yearly basis, the ministry said, adding that since Dr Sant expects to become prime minister, he should carry responsibility regarding what he talks about, otherwise he cannot be taken seriously.