Budget taxes hit workers and their families - Mangion

The Economic Survey, published by the Government, showed that the country's fuel bill in the first nine months of the year was increasing by Lm2.2 million.

But the government was saying this was to go up by Lm16 million because of the increase in the price of oil, Labour Party deputy leader Charles Mangion said yesterday.

Addressing the general meeting of the Ghaqda Veterani Laburisti, he said that the budget showed that the cost of government operations, excluding wages and the social sector, was going up by Lm10 million.

The expense on travel, cars and consultants was not being reduced. The MLP, Dr Mangion said, was to continue working from Parliament and it would take to the streets when the time came.

Next year's budget, he said, meant a new burden of Lm57 million in taxes.

While the Nationalist government was requesting sacrifices from the lower and average income earners, he said, it was giving nothing in return.

He said that, this year, the economy in Malta was growing by 0.6 per cent, the lowest economic expansion in Europe. Investment was also increasing by 0.6 per cent, and wages were increasing by one per cent when the cost of living was going up by three per cent.

This confirmed that the cost of living was much higher than the increase in wages. At the same time there were more than 8,000 people who were unemployed and, according to the government itself, the most favourable prospective for the coming year was that this number would not increase.

All these facts confirmed that the Nationalist government was in a crisis; so much so that it was forecasting an economic expansion of only one per cent when the country's competitors were forecasting an expansion of three to four per cent.

Dr Mangion said the government could not continue blaming the international crisis because the truth was that the economies of other countries were growing.

The crisis was a national one. The Nationalist Party in government lacked vision and was only recycling an old failed recipe of increasing taxes.

Dr Mangion said that since the last election the Nationalist government had pushed VAT up to 18 per cent and spread it on 400 items, which were previously exempt, it introduced tax on inherited property, tax on second hand cars, increased the cost of licences, introduced the eco tax and increased the cost of diesel and petrol.

It was now increasing the cost of kerosene by 103 per cent, the cost of water and electricity, bus fares, it was taxing mobile phones by three per cent, spreading eco taxation and increasing taxation on going abroad.

The burden of government fees was to go up by Lm13 million, Dr Mangion said. At the same time the Prime Minister was not saying how he intended to reduce bureaucracy and increase efficiency in the authorities and foundations which were costing the country Lm77 million a year.

Dr Mangion said that all these taxes had increased the cost of living and were affecting workers and their families. With all these taxes the cost-of-living increase given in the Budget had already disappeared and the cost of living would keep rising more than the EU average.

He said that as for the four days' leave workers would be losing for public holidays falling on weekends, many workers would also be losing money. That was why the GWU had been right to come out against the social pact measures because workers could not be expected to make up for the government's inefficiencies.

On the increase in water and electricity bills, Dr Mangion said this would mean a burden of at least Lm80 to Lm100 a year for every family.

He said that until a few days ago the government had been saying that only electricity bills would go up but both the cost of water and electricity was now increasing.

In August, the Prime Minister also said the government would absorb the increase in the cost of oil if this remained at the levels then obtaining. But even though the cost of oil was now lower than it had been in August, the cost was still being increased.

Referring to the White Paper on pensions, Dr Mangion said that although the country had to think about pensions, so much so that the MLP was discussing pensions in its draft document on economic and social regeneration, the immediate crisis was the expansion of the economy.

He appealed to the government to accept Labour's proposals to retain the country's accounts in an accrual system and for the country to cut its expenses, excluding the social bill, by three per cent.