Car registration tax

The suddenly ubiquitous Labour MEP Joseph Muscat appears to have rediscovered his voice and is now claiming to be the driving force behind the proposed reduction in car registration tax. He had lodged a complaint with the EU Commission about the legitimacy of the 'VAT on the VAT' component of local car registration tax and makes it out to be hard work to remove this injustice and bring down car prices.

The Nationalists reacted during the election campaign and seized an opportunity to promise a restructuring of the registration tax in favour of environment-friendliness - promising reduced car prices for more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Yet, Dr Muscat, the 'champion' of the cause, failed miserably to convince his party to make any pronouncements on the matter. This needs to be taken in the context of a party that was convinced it was going to win.

Promising a reform that would result in lower car prices failed to make it to the agenda of the MLP, which instead preferred to keep mum and possibly correct the VAT anomaly (as they would have had to) by hiking the tax and lowering the VAT component - retaining or increasing car price levels.

Outside the country Dr Muscat was making noises about being more just to Maltese citizens but when he had the opportunity to put his money where his mouth was, as it were, he failed to have any impact whatsoever.