The European Commission has published the consumer prices of petroleum products inclusive of duties and taxes as of Monday, 15 June. These prices are marginally lower than those pertaining to the previous week and have been falling slightly over the past four weeks.

According to these figures, there are 19 EU countries where the price of diesel is lower than the price in Malta, according to the Malta Automobile Club. These are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.

The price of diesel in Luxembourg is €1.086 per litre, while that in Latvia is 1.134 euro per litre. In Malta, the price of diesel is €1.36 per litre.

There are 12 EU countries where the price of petrol is lower than in Malta. These are: Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania and Spain.

In Bulgaria and Poland, the price of petrol is €1.170 and €1.179 per litre, respectively. In Malta, the price of petrol is €1.42 per litre.

In the light of this, the club has addressed the following questions to the government:

·         What is keeping Enemed Co. Ltd from procuring its supplies of petrol and diesel from the same sources as these other EU countries?

·         Why does the government not allow local representatives of major oil companies to compete with Enemed and let them import their brand and grades of petroleum products?

·          How can these representatives of foreign oil companies compete with Enemed, if all the storage facilities belong to the government?

·         Is Mepa prepared to issue permits for petroleum storage facilities to third parties?

·         What is the margin of profit that Enemed is making on these petroleum products, given its dominant position in the market?

·         What quality of petrol and diesel is Enemed importing into Malta? Is it possible that the increase in pollution in Malta is the result of the inferior quality of petroleum products imported by Enemed?

·         What amount of ethanol is contained in the petrol imported by Enemed? Is it possible that pollution in other EU countries has fallen because they have introduced better grades of petrol and diesel, including biofuels?

·         When are Maltese consumers going to have the ability to purchase the brand and grade of petrol and diesel that they prefer?

http://ec.europa.eu/energy/observatory/reports/2015_06_15_with_taxes_1756.pdf