Labour asks why privatisations were not mentioned in Budget

Labour deputy leader Charles Mangion has questioned the recently announced privatisation of Tug Malta, Maltapost and Enemalta's petroleum and gas divisions.

In a statement, Dr Mangion pointed out that official estimates show that by mid-year, the government had overshot its budget by Lm15 million.

He queried whether the hastily announced privatisations were meant to plug an undeclared hole in the government's finances.

The sale of these companies was not mentioned in the government's 2007 budget estimates, a fact, Dr Mangion said, which makes these sudden announcements all the more curious.

In this regard, he called on the Prime Minister to confirm that this omission had nothing to do with the fact that the EU considers revenue from such privatisations as one-offs and, therefore, not to be considered in the assessment of a country's public finances.

These questions, Dr Mangion said, need to be answered because they cast doubts on the government's budget estimates and the sustainability of public finances.

"If the government has got into a state where it manoeuvres its own estimates to reach political goals at the expense of the national interest, then it will be losing the last shred of credibility it may have left, after the recent series of cases of corruption," Dr Mangion concluded.