Milk price to rise from tomorrow

I am really sorry that labour was not voted to government now, seeing that they had the solution to the world inflation crisis and we never gave them a chance!!! It is very easy to criticise when you are on the opposition side of the table.
If you are going to discuss problems, bring the solutions with you. Alfred Sant was always talking about transparency and he was right, the public saw right through the labour party and decided they were not ready to govern. Reading the comments posted here shows the negative mentality of their supporters.

life goes on.. this is 2008 not 1980's

I find some of the comments on blaming the Government etc amusing. It seems that people don't follow the news from other countries. The price of Basic Necesseties has been going up worldwide and sooner or later it had to hit us here.
In fact because of the world demand for food etc it is estimated that the poorer nations are going to suffer the most and that more people are going to be starving.
Much of this is due to the price of oil & when you have Hugo Chavez, the President of oil rich Venezuela, saying that we are not paying enough for oil and that it really should be almost double what it is now, what chance is there of our petrol, electricity going down in price any day soon.
Countries like China & India, who used to subsist mainly on rice, are getting richer & their demand for cereals, meat & now dairy products is going up, which means that the prices of these products will go up.
The amount of waste of foodstuffs in the Western world doesn't help either.
To this day I still mainly shop in my lttle grocer, buying what I need each day. Going to supermarkets means we buy more than we need & more food just gets thrown away. I often wonder how much of what I see in trolleys piled high with food is actually eaten & how much goes in the bin.
There is the old saying "Waste Not Want Not", use left overs & plan your meals and the price of your weekly shopping will decrease slightly in spite of the price rise of milk, bread etc.

@ A Cardona - I'm not surprised that you can buy whole truckloads of milk from your salary if you pay tax at 35%!!
@ C Camilleri - The government doesn't have to wait until the next budget to tax us, this has become everyday work!
@ A Gatt - It is true that in the 80's there was only one brand of tea, but you cannot say that people are going abroad now, that we have a PN government! Come on, I know people who take a holiday once a year and then have to live day by day on their salary the whole year!

The truth is that this is the second rise in milk in a few months, and for those who can afford it, it is no problem. But what about those who can't; UHM and GWU must speak up, this cannot go on.

People keep complaining about the rise in milk. At work, people complain about ricotta, about cereals, about everything.....and then, at the same time, everyone boasts about going shopping at the various supermarkets we have in little Malta!! I remember in the 80's when mum used to send me shopping.....she only wrote 1 packet of tea, because there wasn't the problem of me getting mixed up which brand I buy!! And today, you get mixed up with all the choice!!! Admit....Malta has been and will be at its best in these coming years! And people admit it!

I invite you to visit AMITEX this weekend...you will be surprised with the number of people booking holidays....not to Sicily mind you....but to Far East and Caribbean cruises!!

Angelo, MLP said that those reductions would pay themselves through the hefty increase in GDP. So your claim for "increased the rates per unit of electricity and water, or increase VAT, or create new taxes as they did when in power in 1997, like the 33 new taxes including the door tax of Lm 48 " do not hold. Sorry.

With regards to the increase in prices, I know it had to happen. What I don't understand at this point in time is why the Goverment is doing very little and very slowly regards to alternative fuels.

I know ... alternative fuels wouldn't have helped the price of milk from increasing, but would have helped the country to save tons of 1 € cents in other fields.

All (or let me say 'Most') Maltese blame the government for whatever happens.... I am neither PN nor MLP...
seriously, don't you get it that oil cannot decrease in price it can only become more expensive as it is a limited earth resource which soon finishes, so ANYTHING which comes from oil or works on oil must have some kind of rise in price!!
Anyone blaming the government or blaming anything/anyone else.... why don't you do something about it and not just make a fuss.... get out your chemistry/boilogy/physics/science/technology books and study...maybe we'll have a Maltese modern Einstein!!!

Quoting Mr M Magri; "These voted against a 50% immediate reduction on electricity bills... " - may I please point out that the 50% reduction proposed by the MLP was on the surcharge and not on the actual electricty bill. Surprised one could get the facts wrong seeing that the MLP had too few proposals to get confused with.

Of course its the government's fault that the price of fodder etc has increased around the world. Who else can the disgruntled minority of the country blame?

31. MARCH PASSED !

If the laburisti still think price controls is the solution they have a further 20 years in opposition. At the moment there are problems of inflation all over the world. Malta will be effected whether we like it or not.

Inflation can only be controlled be an increase in productivity, better public spending, less abuse of social services nd hopefully less taxes

What a lot of bull!........oooops sorry cow!

come on people, in my opinion who ever is governing our island the milk would have gone up still due to the increase of fuel which effects a lot in transport and machinery and 'gwiez' of the cows...........i don't like the increase as this is a daily need but we have to be realistic..............

Dear Mike Magri,

How can you be so naive.

What Tal-Labour did not tell us was how they were to finance the 50% reduction in the Surcharge - most probably they would have increased the rates per unit of electricity and water, or increase VAT, or create new taxes as they did when in power in 1997, like the 33 new taxes including the door tax of Lm 48

Overtime money, tax free. The disaster that this measure would have brought about would have been irreversible and the repercussions would be felt for years to come.

The Lm 7000 saving for first time buyers is no saving at all. It is just a loan to be paid back after some years with interest at commercial rates. Ha. Ha.Ha. What a saving!!!!

Mike like the rest of you, you did not even hear or read the budget speeches. Previous Nationalist Govts have a record of lowering direct taxes. This year many will be paying less direct taxes. Perhaps you are one of them and you do not know. Take my advice have a look at the last budget.

Mike Magri
we are going to get a reduction of the top rate of tax from 35% to 25%. Work out what that will leave you in your pocket, and compare it with the amount left in your pocket from a 50% reduction in the SURCHARGE (not the bill). Give me the tax reduction any day...I can buy whole truckloads of milk with it! :)

Mr. Magri came up with three examples of the misinformation we band about as fact. 1. The electricity bills were NOT, repeat NOT, going to be halved. It was the surcharge which was going to be halved - quite a substantial difference if you can do the Maths! 2. The VAT that we pay on 'hundreds of thousands of objects we consume daily' replaced what we used to pay as Custom's Duty, which was often far higher than the 18% VAT we pay today. Also since food is still being charged at 0% VAT, I am very curious to know what 'hundreds of thousands' of products you use on a daily basis because I can only think of a handful at most. 3. The 'tax free' overtime is also a bit of a joke and, if I were you, would not use it to raise 'plus' points for the MLP. I see that you 'forgot' to mention that the overtime rate would have been REDUCED to the standard rate of payment instead of the 'one and a half' rate most of us enjoy today. But perhaps, you work for the MLP and your overtime is already on the lowest rate admissible - with the GWU's blessing may I add. So PLEASE give it a rest with the Doom and Gloom attitude.

When one reads the contributions and then ending up in punches, one realises why we urgently need a Labour Leader that is new, fresh, and MODERN with a view to change the idiotic mentality of this Nation. First of all the PN cannot just say that prices are rising from abroad and that there is nothing that one can do! Why? Well, for those with very short memories, when Labour was in power and prices were going up from abroad because of an explosion in oil prices and then world recessions the then PM was criticising Labour and to try and gain a point or two he started comparing Maltese salaries to the ones in UK, and Germany. If one goes back and reads what was said, one finds that the exact words were: ( Il-pagi f'Malta huma baxxi meta kkumparati ma barra , bhall nghidu ahna l-Ingilterra u l-Germanja) ( Il-paga Germaniza hija d-doppju ta' wahda Maltija). (Il-gvern ghandu jiehu dawk il-passi necessarji biex IZID il-pagi sewwa halli jghamlu tajjeb ghall-gholi tal-hajja). By the same argument the Government should now give substantial increases to buffer the effect of an ever increasing cost of living. Besides according to Gonzi the economy is very strong, so maybe reduction in taxes, like VAT, which happens to be one of the highest in the EU, could be a start. The biggest problem for Malta is that we already have more then 60% of our GDP in National Debt and rising and the budgets deficit IS NOT GOING TO GO DOWN, but in actual fact increase. Wait for it in the next budget and listen to all the excuses that one could think of. The plain truth is that the PN have actually made a big mess of the economy and the figures cannot be defended. When the going was good in Europe, Malta was getting increases in taxes and more taxes because of the poor economic situation that Malta was in 2003! We are now paying some £m82 million a year in INTERST alone to service the National Debt created by the INCOMPETENCE of consecutive PN Govts.

You are right Mr.Magri!!!!!!!!!!!! you are RIGHT!!!!!!! I FEEL so BAD now, having voted PN because of the €7c increase in MILK. MEA CULPA! I should have voted MLP instead!!!! Then we COULD HAVE BEEN given THE 50% decrease on the SURCHARGE!!!!!! (hmmm even if the surcharge itself could easily have been doubled to counter-effect the 50% decrease on top of it - but it's ok! I'm an idiot and I cannot figure this out )

Err....Yawn......

What can the government do? Subsidise it (i.e. more taxes)? or maybe create a big offshore island the size of Malta to grow cheap grains and hay for the local cows? I know it! - the solution is to withdraw from the EU.
Maybe it's called globalisation and global problems? Some people need to snap out of their island mentality. And if you thought this was a case of "A-ha! I was right! You should have voted MLP" then sorry, try again later.

I really admire the way PN supporters behave. When there is constructive criticism, they resort to the same tune "please have patience for another 5 years in opposition" or something on the same lines. First of all I wish that they will remain there for the full 5 years as in my opinion, the JPO case may clearly end up having the government lose credibility and a staunch MP. On the other hand they will try to get him and the whole party out of it as clean as they can. So please, PN supporters, please come with some constructive replies to such obscene decisions. I sincerely think that you have voted on things such as: 1. The entry of Malta in PfP 2. The increase in prices after March 3. The increase in the country's loan portfolio 4. The removal of the Junior Lyceum concept 5. The removal of the church schools availability to all by examinations 6. The introduction of taxes on refuse collection 7. The introduction of private pensions to hae some form of pension should a worker have the possibility to retire one day. 8. and a lot more which will surface in the media in the next five years, Hope that at least one PN supporter will indicate to me where the above are in their electoral manifesto. I would also like to ask them to indicate where in the manifesto one will find a guarantee by the PM where the disposable income prior to the election will remain the same or increase by 2013.

Dear Charles Camilleri..... Did you ever manage to count how many direct and indirect taxes, vat on hundreds of thousands of objects we consume daily, eco contributions, etc... etc..., nationalist governments have made us, as you say, `swallow`, since 1987...??????

OF COURSE NOT CHARLES..... IT`S IMPOSSIBLE..... I KNOW......

But you know Charles, at least, a labour government had promissed us to immediately leave us some MORE CASH in our take home pay, by spending that much L E S S on direct taxes, mentioned in my previous comment.....

Right Charles ....????

Why all the fuss for a, 7 euro cents increase on the cartons milk ! everybody know that this increase is due to a World wide crisis, and that includes us too, Etc, Etc.n

I don't t like to see prices rising.
But if there is some Wise guy, who has a solution to this milky issue, show us the formula ?

All you anti PN/Goverment, please have patience for another 5 years in opposition. It has become common now that everytime something happens, it is the goverment who is to blame. I bet that even if it snows, it will be the goverments fault and of all those who voted PN. A little bit of advice to all those who always post against the PN/Goverment. Take a look inside the MLP glass house and I am sure that you will not stop posting here.

That's right Mike,
perhaps a Labour Government like that of the 1996-1998 which made us swallow 33 new taxes in 22 months would solve the problem of increasing oil and fodder prices. Labour did not tell the voters that they have a magic formula how to solve this problem of rising raw material from abroad.

The only way is up , meaning cost of living mind you.

Well What`s All This FUSS About An Increase In The Cost Of Milk, etc.. etc.. etc....!!!!

In this last general election, the majority of those eligible to vote, decided either not to collect their voting document...!!! OR...Collecting their voting document and not voting anyway...!!! OR... Deleting their voting document...!!! OR... Even worse, voted in favour of that party that declared that he couldn`t care less if there would be a savage price increase in the cost of living, after March, 2008...!!!

These voted against a 50% immediate reduction on electricity bills... Against earning overtime money, tax free... Against saving some LM7000 to those first time buyers on the purchase of their houses... Etc.. Etc.... Etc....



CONCLUSION: Enjoy yourselves you wise guys... Have fun seeing the purchasing power of your take home pay shrinking by the day....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dear M. Brincat....perhaps yoghurt and fresh rikotta are made from milk coming from cows that are only fed 'haxix hazin' !!

MDP - why raise only the price of milk and not distribute the extra rise in cost on all products including yoghurt and rikotta?...is it because milk is bought by everyone and other products are bought only by the few?

quote: "No increases have been made to the prices of yogurt products fresh rikotta."

Ah. Maybe these are made with sun-dried tomatoes and not milk?