Sant promises tax credits to halve SME's power surcharge

Labour leader Alfred Sant said this morning that under a Labour government, SMEs would be given a tax credit equivalent to half the surcharge on their water and electricity bill. He said that while large companies currently enjoyed a capping on the amount of surcharge they paid, smaller companies did not.

The situation would not be changed for the large companies, but the SMEs which currently did not benefit from the capping would be eligible for the tax rebates. Such assistance, Dr Sant said, was allowed under EU law.

Speaking at a press conference at Labour headquarters, Dr Sant said that the creation of full time jobs had been slowing significantly, especially in the past four years. At the same time the people’s participation in the labour force was the lowest in the EU.

He claimed that real GDP growth in Malta was just one percent over the past few years, hampered especially by a heavy tax burden.

Dr Sant said the Labour government would be pragmatic in its approach to economic regeneration.

With regard to manufacturing industry, the MLP would set up a commission grouping the government and industry leaders to lay out a strategy to ease the tax structure, cut bureaucracy and introduce other measures as necessary so that up to 2,000 new jobs could be created in two years.

Labour would also revamp the investment promotion incentives and the way investment promotion was handled, seeking out new markets such as China, Russia and Kuwait.

In this way the total number of new jobs in five years would rise by 6,000.

In the IT sector, all existing companies would be given better facilities where to work. Labour would also continue to back the SmartCity project. Labour also saw an urgent need for more young people to be trained in IT to ensure that investors found the workers they needed here, rather than having to import them.

Dr Sant said the financial services sector had done well over the past few years but benefits from this sector were not trickling down to the rest of the economy. Nonetheless, the MLP would like this sector to double its turnover in the next four years. Here again, a major effort would be needed to ensure that the sector found the human resources it needed to grow. Here too a Labour government would set up a commission with the sector leaders to come up with recommendations to grow this sector.

Dr Sant said micro -enterprises had faced problems over the past few years but would under Labour find stronger backing, including lower compliance costs. One of the major projects, mentioned for the past 14 years or so, the Ta’Qali crafts village, would finally be carried out. Small workshops would also be able to relocate to new workshops given to them on emphyteusis by the government.

Agro-industry would find the same nature of support as other industries.

Dr Sant said the MLP wanted to bring about real economic growth of between 4-6 percent per annum in real terms. But it would be ensured that workers’ rights were respected and all workers should benefit from the fruit of economic growth. A Labour government would not tolerate exploitation of workers, like when they were forced to go round regulations, such as when they were told by their employers to register as self-employed.