The time is overdue for the minister responsible for fuel and energy supply in Malta to abandon the present practice of setting the price of petrol, electricity and gas by diktat. Even if the minister fixes his pricing decisions on rational calculations based on concrete information provided to him by Enemalta, he needs to be transparent with the public whose lives is being profoundly affected by the spiralling costs of fuel and energy.

Many have welcomed the recent fall in oil prices. Unfortunately their joy will be short-lived because it seems that oil prices are on the rise again. Even if their expectations of a cut in the surcharge on water and electricity bills now appear to have been premature because of the volatility in the commodities market, they rightly expect to see the surcharge on water and electricity, as well as the price of fuel, move with the international market prices. Minister Gatt was less than convincing when confronted with this justifiable expectation.

The time has come to introduce a transparent and audited method of fixing fuel and energy prices so that the people will not feel cheated by the politics of convenience – raising prices when crude oil shoots up, but failing to reduce them when the same commodity falls in price.

One is not asking for daily changes in retail prices because clearly this is not practical. However, a revision of prices on a periodic basis through a mechanism that pegs the retail price to the price of the raw material is not only desirable, but also essential if people are not to continue to feel that they are being short-changed by the government.

This brings me to another important consideration. In a few months’ time the provision of bottled gas to households will pass on to a private monopoly. It is widely anticipated that this move will immediately bring about a substantial rise in the price of this product, which at present is being sold at below its cost of production.

So far the government has not stated how it will ensure that the price charged by the private monopoly will be held at reasonable levels. Nor have we been informed on how the regulator will ensure that in future the private monopoly will not take advantage of its dominant position. This matter needs to be clarified as soon as possible in order to put the minds of consumers at rest regarding the protection that they by right expect from the government. So far many feel that regulators have failed to protect the legitimate interest of consumers when monopolistic or dominant market situations develop locally.

Yet another issue is the imminent elimination of subsidies on water consumption in accordance with EU regulations. We need to see evidence that the government is indeed aware of the social impact and that the escalating cost of water, electricity, fuel and gas has been assessed, that measures will be taken to cushion this impact on families who are most at risk of falling below the poverty line unless they are assisted.

The Labour Party will continue to keep up its pressure on the government to address these issues with determination. Just because we are at the beginning of an electoral cycle when a general election is not due for a few more years, the government should not roll over the interests of Maltese families who rightly expect to be given a fair deal by the providers of essential services and products like fuel, energy, water, and gas.

The fact that so far this provider happens to be the government that has a monopoly makes it more important that information on the fixing of prices for these products and services is given in a regular and transparent way. Only in this way can we really feel that we are being treated equitably.

The government is setting the worst example just on the eve of the liberalisation of parts of the energy and fuel markets, by not making sufficient information available for a fair scrutiny of the prices being charged to consumers.

We need to move away from price fixing by ministerial diktat, to price fixing through a mechanism based on the movement of prices of raw materials in the international markets. The time to do this is right now.

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