The Malta Independent 6 June 2025, Friday
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Hedging report: 'the government went from policy direction to trader selection' – PN

Wednesday, 11 March 2015, 12:53 Last update: about 11 years ago

The PN has claimed that government has gone from policy direction to trader selection, adding that Minister Konrad Mizzi intervened in dealing with SOCAR for fuel hedging.

PN MPs Marthese Portelli and Claudio Grech said that the Maltese public is paying for government's mistake on fuel hedging, highlighting that as of today Malta still has the highest unleaded fuel price in Europe and the third highest for diesel. They argued that the National Audit Office report shows that the Audit Finance Board was not making decisions that resulted in a loss of funds until the two hedging agreements where "Ministerial intervention" took place were made.

In response to questions relating to claims that hedging created stability for businesses, the two MPs said that businesses would have benefitted if hedging was done in a proper way. Dr Marthese Portelli said that during a meeting the Opposition held with MCESD members, the President of the Chamber of Commerce said that whilst stability is good for business, business will only benefit if the stable price is one that is competitive."  

Turning to the lack of documentation, the PN MPs argued that these were the only hedging agreements where documentation was not adequate. As a result, they called on government to publish all documentation relating to hedging agreements.

Asked about the Giovanna Debono case, PN MP Marthese Portelli refused to comment, stating that she was not the police.

 

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