Government should stop blaming globalisation - MP

Marie Louise Coleiro, opposition spokesman on social policy, has insisted in parliament that the government should explain why Malta has fallen behind in competitiveness and not blame globalisation for what was taking place.

Speaking in parliament during the debate on a bill to implement budget measures, Ms Coleiro said competing economies were performing much better than Malta in the same international scenario.

The facts were that in Malta, some 11.2 per cent of the population was still illiterate, the training of workers was inadequate, and the government was continuing to impose costs on producers.

The recent introduction of the eco-tax, so close after the raising of the VAT rate, was continuing to compound matters.

The government, she said, had mishandled the talks on a social pact. The Irish government had managed to strike a social pact while the Maltese government had not because the Irish administration tried to comprise with all the stakeholders in the discussions. Finland had also embraced social pacts but had different working structures than Malta.

Ms Coleiro praised the trade unions for having protested over the budget measures.

What the government needed to do, she said, was not burden the people but reduce its own spending.

She lauded the government for introducing the concept of civil society in the legal framework but on the other side of the coin, the budget affected badly those people still using kerosene in their daily lives. The price hike also affected industry and the bakers. The same applied for the eco-tax on plastic bags.

Interjecting, Parliamentary Secretary Tonio Fenech said that plastic bags for the manufacturing sector and for items such as bread packaging were not subject to the eco-tax.

Ms Coleiro said a legal notice on the eco-tax still had to be clarified by the government and one could only, perhaps, believe what was written black on white.

Continuing, she said that one out of every three children, one out of every six adults and one out of every two single parents were living in poverty. Unemployment in poor families was one in two while in non-poor families one in 24. The same could be said for illiteracy: one out of nine as opposed to one out of 19.

The government was so insensitive that it had not made an impact assessment of the new taxes before they were imposed.

She concluded by saying that there was no mention this year of the basket of goods on which the cost of living increases for pensioners was to be gauged.

Michael Asciak (PN) said that the Opposition did not seem to realise that Malta was going through great changes as it had to compete in an increasingly competitive market.

Every effort should be made for Malta to be able to successfully compete in a liberalised market.

Competitiveness was becoming more globalised, as witnessed by the removal of import levies, as of January 1, on products coming from WTO member-states.

The government was giving all the time needed to the other social partners to arrive at a solution to the present impasse on measures to raise competitiveness. It was waiting for alternatives from them and the time had come for the unions to stop flexing their muscle.

If there was no agreement and there was industrial unrest, Malta would lose investment.

As with the eco-tax, the opposition must choose. If it was against such a tax, how could one find a solution to the waste disposal problem? The best method how to collect such a tax was on the basis of the polluter pays principle, with fine tuning where certain actions were not found to be flexible.

Would the Opposition opt to withdraw the eco-tax when in government?

Concluding, Dr Asciak said he expected the opposition to be more responsible and to date its positions.

Chris Agius, opposition spokesman on industry, complained that unemployment was continuing to rise. Government policies were not yielding investment, and now this budget imposed more burdens on the people.

The former Labour government had created a substantial number of jobs with the setting of companies such as Sea Malta and Medigrain but the present government was mitigating the need of such companies by either restructuring, privatising or closing them down. He said that the country's welfare system was the Labour government's best achievement and now even that was under threat.

The budget, Mr Agius said, was yet another confirmation that the PN never took care of the middle and lower class. Year after year the balance of payments and the national debt had continued to rise. Debt servicing costs last year alone were Lm45.4 million.

It was beyond comprehension how social services were dwindling even as revenue from direct and indirect taxation rose.

It was not just taxes which were rising, but also costs. At the current rate, even the Maltese hobza could soon become endangered.

It was true that something had to be done for Malta to remain competitive. The FOI had long been asking the government to contain government-induced costs. The government was now taking the easiest road by reducing public holidays, which would lead to industrial strife and scare away investment.

Malta's electricity tariffs were one of the highest in Europe and now the prime minister was saying that these would be revised every six months.