Labour’s hedging deal backfires, leaving Malta with Europe’s most expensive petrol and diesel
Published:
November 9, 2014 at 5:47pm
The prices of petrol and diesel are falling fast internationally, but not in Malta. Our government’s hedging deal last May, trumpeted wildly in a major press conference by the prime minister as a guarantee that our petrol and diesel would be two cents cheaper until the end of the year (or some such), has backfired badly. We are now paying the most expensive prices in Europe because the government is tied to its ‘cheap’ deal when the market has made the international prices cheaper still. No press conference to tell us about this – we had to read it in The Sunday Times this morning.
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Hmar makus idur ghalih id-dubbien. They cannot get anything right.
Do you call cheats, pimps and scoundrels a ‘hmar maghkus’?
If I remember correctly, when the PN was in government it was criticised by the PL for not hedging enough in the buying of oil.
On every issue, the PL criticised the PN in government and in every case the PL in government is doing worse.
On meritocracy, corruption, transparency, balance in public broadcasting, environment, public transport, traffic congestion, power generation and now the buying of oil. You name it – on every issue the PL performs badly.
Kemm konna ahjar meta konna aghar.
Let us take petrol as an example.
At 71 cents, it is 5 cents higher than the next highest in Denmark, where it stands at 66 cents per litre.
When the prime minister lowered the price of petrol by 2 cents back in April, he organised a press conference.
It follows that if the prime minister were to lower the current price to bring it in line with that in Denmark, he could organise two and a half press conferences.
Something else which escaped the attention of The Sunday Times is that, if the price at the pump is Eur 1.44 including taxes, then we are paying 73 cents of taxes.
In other words, not only is the government charging us the highest pre-tax price in Europe, but it is charging us more than that price in taxes. The government is more than doubling the price which it costs the government to buy the fuel.
Speak of “inrahhsu l-kontijiet” and “energija pozittiva.”
U bis-suppost ftehim mal-Libya li niehdu fuel bl-irhis. Parole si, fatti no.
Ah, Libya, the failed state.
The government’s reply refers to the “weighted average price” in the EU rather than the simple average.
I wonder why they chose to weight prices by the size of country?
This biases the result towards the larger countries in the EU, which is irrelevant in this case.
I guess the weighted average EU prices are higher than the simple average EU prices. I would recommend that someone at PN HQ checks out the data.
I remember vividly, a few years back, the illiterate discussing hedging on Xarabank, with the prime clown leading that discussion.
Everyone was an expert on hedging then. Should we expect a Xarabank feature or programme on hedging? I doubt it now.
PN, where are thou? This is a golden opportunity for a crusade.
Can we know the value of how much fuel has been bought under those hedging contracts? How much savings could have been made if those contracts had not been entered into? Who the counter-parties of those contracts are?
It is also worth asking if similar hedging had been entered into for HFO in Enemalta’s powerstations and at Airmalta, and what are the consequences of those contracts.
The Air Malta fuel hedging if any at present would make interesting reading seeing fuel is an airlines major expense , we now have a very silent pilots union hmmm .
Our governments have always had just about the same level of relative competence as it-tim Malti tal-futbol.
Have we ever seen a copy of this hedging agreement?
Is it true there is a hedging agreement?
I very much suspect that there is something nefarious going on and we are all, including the diehard Lejburisti u tal-qalba being taken for a ride (excuse the pun) burning fuel at a premeditated inflated price.
I am not convinced about the hedging contracts either.
Was there any reference to hedging in the article below? No.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140430/local/update-3-pm-announces-cuts-in-petrol-gas-prices-fuel-prices-locked-till-december.517057
If I remember well, at the time, the prime minister had said that “after months of negotiations and hard work,” his government had secured favourable prices.
I am not so sure that there is a hedging contract. I think there is only a fixed price contract. No idea with whom, though. And covering what period – when does it expire?
I think some questioning in Parliament is necessary.
Wasn’t MLP supposed to be safe for business, amongst other promises?
Can someone please explain the government’s reasoning that Malta had the lowest average price in the first months of this year, as stated in a Department of Information press release?
If it was as positive as the statement wants us to believe, I’m sure the nation would have been informed through a press conference similar to the 2c reduction show.
Here we go again. Back in 1998 under the watch of l-ekonomista minn Harvard Alfred Sant, Enemalta hedged for, if I recall correctly, 3 years – only for the price to plummet to under $20.
This resulted in Malta paying some Lm30 million per year – and that amount was almost equal to Malta’s budget deficit.
Indeed Malta lost so much from that hedging agreement that subsequent PN administrations decided not to gamble with taxpayers’ money.
And those idiots from the national audit office lambasted Roderick Chalmers who chaired the oil procurement committee. They claimed Malta could have saved some €5 million euros when they calculated hedging retrospectively. What geniuses.
Let’s see what the National Audit Office has to say after this froga.
Look at the bright side of having the highest prices for petrol and diesel.
One can save more per hour of not using one’s car then citizens of the other EU countries.
Malta Enerġija Pożittiva
Don’t worry guys, issa jigi l-bagit, u jrahhas it-ton taz-zejt 1 cent u jaghmel sorpriza.
This government is inept, unskilful, unskilled, inexpert, amateurish, unprofessional, lacking ability, bungling, blundering, clumsy, unproficient, inadequate, sub-standard, inferior, ineffective, arrogant, deficient, inefficient, ineffectual, no good, not good enough, wanting, lacking, leaving much to be desired, unprincipled, dishonest, unscrupulous, very greedy, selfish, lame, nasty, negative, hostile …. , totally farcical and pretty much
doomed.
Qtajtli niefsi mma ghandek ragun biex tbieh Haruf.
What a rich language English is! So many adjectives to describe one single farce staged by a single director.
….. self-centred, unethical, immoral, amoral, inconsistent, opportunist, disrespectful of the law ……
Why didn’t Joe jump onto a rostrum this time round to announce the international fall in price? One possibility is that his rostums got axed and chopped for firewood, considering the high price of fuel in Malta.
Brace yourselves, a raise in an invisible tax is coming! (heq min x’imkien irrid igibom il-4c hux)
Pajjiz tal-Mickey Mouse umbad tara xi erbghat ic-cwiec jghidulu grazzi tali rahhas 4c BISS! -.-