AN questions environmental reasons for new taxes

Azzjoni Nazzjoni this afternoon dismissed the budget as a “a budget of hot air”.

“CO2 emissions are the government's latest convenient excuse to further fleece an overburdened public of its hard earned earnings,” the party said.

It said that the argument surrounding climate change was far from settled.

“To impose a tax regime on the premise of a flimsy hypothesis is at best short-sighted and will only serve to destabilise further our economy and standard of living. Will the government refund the tax payers if and when the man-made climate change theory is conclusively debunked?” the party asked.

Furthermore, the government's assertion that alternative energy was somehow more efficient (implying that it was cheaper) was also wrong, AN said. At best, alternative energy ,like wind turbines, was only useful in alleviating peak demand and at worst, such as on a windless day, next to useless and conventionally powered backup would still be required to meet the demand

“The CO2 emissions- based tax measures introduced, including those on cars will simply hurt most those who can afford them least such as those who cannot afford a new car,” the party said.

“The truth is that Environmentalism, no matter how irrational, is being slowly but surely elevated to a state religion and the government (whether it believes in it or not) finds it ever more convenient to tax in its name.”

It added that the income tax incentives were unashamedly token. The raise in fuel tax alone would cancel out the projected savings.

“The only welcome news was of the reduction of tax on motorcycles, the need to have building energy efficiency certification before permits are granted and the prospect of a liberalized mass transportation market” AN said, adding that the proposals came “straight out” of its manifesto.

“Most importantly the budget fails to address the fundamental issues. The government still fails to understand that economies cannot be centrally driven. It fails to understand that the working public would prefer the situation where it would be relieved of taxation and given less in the form of 'benefits' in return. – The public does not want a big daddy to deny them of their earnings only to see it spent irresponsibly. The public and the productive community want more independence from and less dependence on the state,” AN added.