It seems that the government wants to stagger the blows it will be giving to the people.

The price of fuel shot up last Monday. Normally, such a revision of prices is carried out as from the first day of a given month, but this time the government chose to increase the price of all kinds of fuel in the last week of June.

Late last year, with the election date still to be announced, the government had said that the price of fuel would have remained untouched till the end of June, and so technically the government did not keep its promise, although one week here and there does not make much of a difference.

The next blow will be the increase in the surcharge that is paid on water and electricity, and this will no doubt be announced next week, probably on Monday.

And, just as much as the price of fuel has gone up sharply – a difference of more than e0.10 per litre is no joke – the increase in the surcharge will be another unpopular measure, one that is however inevitable in the circumstances.

One has to wait and see what the new surcharge structure will be, but the jump will not be small. Like fuel, the surcharge has been untouched for the past six months, during which time the price of oil has not only surpassed the $100 mark, but is now around $140 per barrel.

Whether the government will announce that the surcharge will remain unchanged for the next six months – as it has done with regard to the price of fuel – is also a big question mark.

With the price of oil on the international market going up to unprecedented highs and the consequential rise in the price of cereals, there is no other option for the government but to pass on the costs onto the consumer. The problem with this is that such measures will have ripple effects, and the costs of products and services will go up too as companies shift their added burdens onto the consumer too.

The people at the lower end of the social scale will be suffering the most, but such increases will affect other sectors of society, who will be finding it hard to make ends meet unless they work hard to reduce their consumption.

The world is going through a difficult situation, and Malta is experiencing the same circumstances as those in other countries. Abroad, we have seen protests being held in the streets because of the increase in the price of fuel and, although this has not happened here yet, the people do have a right to complain that not enough is being done – internationally, that is – to bring the situation under control.

The Maltese government is confident that although the price of fuel is expected to continue going up, at least in the short-term, Malta will still be able to achieve a surplus budget in the year 2010, which the Nationalist Party promised before the election. The economic indicators show that this target will be met, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi told journalists at the end of the European Union summit held in Brussels last week.

Time will tell whether the Prime Minister is correct. Given the prevailing situation, it is hard to predict what will happen by the end of summer, let alone in two years’ time. What is sure is that the government must show a stronger inclination to invest in alternative energy sources, a factor that has not been given the importance it merits over the years. And the people themselves must be ready to adapt to the new circumstances.