The Malta Independent on Sunday yesterday published a story on its front page, quoting social partners as being ‘up in arms’ at the government’s last minute decision to hike utility bill tariffs up to the levels of last October.

The social partners’ verdict was unanimous, and reflects the view of the general citizen, in which they said that the government has learned nothing from the debacle of last year.

There are a few subtle differences, however. While the government has still sprung the plan at the last minute, it has given the concession – at least – that the bills will not be backdated and will be charged at the new rate once it comes into effect.

The decision last time around infuriated people, and the government seems to have anticipated the wrath that any form of backdated payment would have incurred by Joe Public as well as businesses.

The second issue, as pointed out in the same article, is that a much softer approach was taken in presenting the plan with it being delivered by Finance Minister Tonio Fenech rather than Austin Gatt.

This is also a signal in itself. It is a clear indication that the government has at least recognised the fact that it cannot afford to take bulldozer style action. There is only one thing worse than telling people they are forced to pay out money, and that is doing so arrogantly.

The other difference is that while the planned hike is not being included as part and parcel of the budget, the government has had the decency to point out before hand that a hike is a’comin’.

But, the social partners had one very convincing argument. They told this newspaper that the government had missed the bus because while it had expected oil prices to drop further, the worldwide signals of economic recovery began to nudge prices per barrel up higher and higher. They said the government should have bought cheap.

The government will counter by saying that Malta had been stung very recently in the sense of oil being bought at a fairly high price in advance, only for oil prices to go into freefall. All the while, the Maltese customer bore the brunt of the burden.

The social partners said that the government, along with Enemalta, should have worked out a pricing benchmark whereby the corporation should always purchase oil at a certain price threshold as it would result in a price of EURX for the consumer, which would be deemed acceptable.

Is it hedging? At the end of the day, of course it is. But as the social partners pointed out, if oil is purchased at that benchmarked price, then utility bills could be stabilised – and they are right.

As we have mentioned, the government might be in a ‘once bitten twice shy’ situation, but when oil hit the lows which it did some months ago, then every last available cent should have gone into purchasing oil at the given price.

That being said, the economic recovery signs sprouted up overnight and did perhaps catch everyone napping. It really was a case of the early bird catching the worm and unfortunately, we were not early. But to be fair, even if the government had purchased the oil, it would only have been a temporary thing. The world does not plummet into economic crisis every year (thank God) and let’s face it, how much oil could we actually pre-purchase? Not much more than about six months, one would have to guess.