Sunday, 23rd November 2008 - 12:18CET
Gonzi, Muscat comment on tariffs, Fenech to meet GRTU
Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said today that the talks with the social partners on the utility tariffs were continuing, and Finance Minister Tonio Fenech would tomorrow have another meeting with the GRTU.
Dr Gonzi, who was speaking in Gozo, described his meetings with the trade unions yesterday as “a mature discussion” aimed at finding the best way forward for the country. The ultimate aim, he said, was to bring about a culture change. The government, he said, did not want to see living standards decline, but it wanted to see everybody appreciating that every minute of energy used had a cost.
The government also wanted to encourage more people to invest in alternative sources of energy.
Dr Gonzi said he hoped that in the coming days this reform would be concluded.
Meanwhile, Opposition leader Joseph Muscat said the MLP would welcome an understanding between the government and the trade unions, adding that the MLP would not comment further so as not to hinder the talks.
He however criticised the government for insisting on backdating the new tariffs to October 1 and said such decisions were harmful to the economy and unfair since meters had not been read.
This was a time for the government to put money in the people’s pockets and not the other way around, he said, pointing out that the UK government was expected to reduce VAT to 15% (from 18%) precisely for this purpose.
The Labour leader also criticised the government on the vehicle registration tax and circulation tax, particularly the way how even taxes on hybrid cars were rising.
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Quote GonziPN... BEFORE Elections - Copied Vote Catching Gimick "..Together Everything Is Possible..".....!!!!!
My Understanding.. AFTER Elections.. Facts... ".ALONE WE DO MUCH MORE ".. i.e. Tax Them..., Tax Them..., and keep on Taxing Them... as we have a BIG.. BIG.. Hole in the bucket.....!!!!!!
Agree he j.m Simply has no other option, he blanked OUT, I Guess this Gonzi is more than enough for him j.m to Handle with.
I guess he is waiting for the final outcome on this matter ( of tarrifs ) so maybe he can find Xi Xara F' l - Ghagina!! Halluna !
Secondly I would wait to see the EU plans on this matter which should be made known soon.
For all those insulting J. Muscat for any minimal eye blink he does, in this case JM just said he won't comment on the talks and not on the tariffs.
The American government is injecting some $700 billion, just to keep most (not all) banks afloat. The fate if Citybank is still in the balance even after laying off some 75,000 workers. Malta has no such problems.
Ditto for the UK.
The recession in the States, UK and most other countries is only partially due to the financial industry collapse. The global recession is the result of people losing faith in their future ability to managing their debts while keeping up with their day to day living expenses. Thus demand for goods and services will diminish so, factories and service providers will require less manpower.
Malta will be affected and the few hundred so far working four day weeks will no doubt escalate since the demand for our exports will decrease as the recession deepens.
Injecting any funds in the Maltese economy at this point will not help matters much and one has to be careful that if such funds are provided, they will not go into a company's bottom line, but rather for increasing production and efficiency and be ready for when things get back to normal.
Maintaining subsidies will also be counter-productive.
For correctness sake the basic standard VAT rate in the EU is 15 and not 18 percent..
Full details can be verified on the following link>
http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/taxation/vat/how_vat_works/rates/index_en.htm
Do you believe in Father Christmas maybe Peter Pan?As it seems you have total faith in the government and so would like to ask you how many of his electoral promises did he finish from the previous legislation. Got any percentage? Are you joking when you are saying that the surplus was postponed due to the international crisis? Come on the crisis was forseen from mid-2006 let alone last march. Was the government playing video games?On CNN and Euronews it was continuously mentioned. Are you referring to the online casinos as regards the economic growth? I think that you should have said a TAX-growth. The utility bills have not gone in effect yet.So just wait. As regards mentioning Dr.Muscat honestly i NEVER mentioned him and did not expect a reply on him. I was talking the Maltese truth as the past budget could only be described as an alter-ego. UK is bankrupt?Are France, Germany and Italy too? If Europe goes down WE go down.
Reading your reply (or quoting Mr.Fenech) i realised that the idiom is correct again... empty vessels make the most sound. Anyway continue dreaming.... what was it ...ah... "Yes together EVERYTHING is possible!"
Only when people start to see the government as us, and our money, not us and them will we start to develop in this country. Unfortunately, Joseph Muscat is not helping to change this way of thinking, and up to now has only excelled in cheap talk. Since, contrary to what he promised he is disturbing government plans with data manipulation and amateurish proposals, which are easily noticed by a well organized and professionally consulted political party like the PN.
Before writing that Malta is in recession because a few workers are losing their jobs or working a 4 day week, it would be worth checking what the word recession means before rushing to print.
The electoral promises before the election are there to be implemented over the 5 years, and not all in the first budget. Before the election we were not promised a utopia. We were promised a surplus in 2010 but has to be postponed to 2011 due to the international financial crisis. The people commenting in this section seem to have this idea in mind that at the moment the Uk is heaven on earth becaused the government is planning a few tax cuts, when the reality is that the UK is bankrupt and experiencing a recession and Brown had no other choice (also the UK general election is round the corner). Malta is still experiencing economic growth.
Muscat's proposals - He had all the time in the world to come up with some alternative proposals. Some were already implemented and a few minutes after his reaction speech, Minister Fenech literally rubbished and ridiculed most of them because they were based on wrong figures and calculations and contained no substance at all.
Hence, from what i read in Caruana's comment i must say i only agree with the first sentence where he himself claims to be an idiot.
What happened to Austin Gatt........how come not involved!!!!!!!
Who told you that Malta isn't passing througha recession....what about those workers being laid down or made to work 4 days.
Also Joseph Muscat already told the government not to go ahead with the changes in W&E tariffs....but it's because he said so the government would do nothing.
Now that he is dscussing the tariffs with the unions changes will be made and GONZIPN will try and take all the glory because it listened to the people.....
http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/resources/documents/taxation/vat/how_vat_works/rates/vat_rates_en.pdf
Borrowing money will not solve the problems we have. will just make them worst. All our government for the next 10 years has to do is to make the sure the economy grows at a stable rate. who ever will be in power.
Please note that the UK had negotiated a permanent derogation with regards to VAT which allows them to set their own VAT rate irrespective of what is required from the dictators in Brussels. In fact in the UK no vat is paid on food, medicines and childrens clothing, and VAT on energy services like gas and electricity is 5% and the general VAT rate for everything else is 17 1/2% unlike the rest of E U which has a standard rate of 18%.
That Mr. Zammit is the reason why the UK can change their vat charges and Malta cannot.
THere are 2 main differences in this regard. First, the UK is passing through a major recession while Malta isn't. And second, the UK is very near election date, while Malta isn't!!!!!
As a matter of fact yes WE are idiots. If you wonder why i am writing so as 8 months ago we were given the impression of a Utopia coming up with surplus and other "inconvenient truths" (i love the way politicians package words... its an art i am trying to learn) and now everything is the opposite. If this is not called IDIOCRACY i wonder what could it be called. I would like to know what has been implemented from the electoral manifest in these 8 months.... if not mistaken from those 355. That is 71 per year.
Once (somewhere during the first 2 months of this year) i heard on Radio 101 that prices were revised every 3 months when someone asked the minister during a programme. Seems everything changed. Was the hedging done for 4 years.... just in time for the next general election? Its obvious that the government found this (oil hike) convenient to start super taxes... luckily for him (but not us) the election is still far away. Its the same thing as Bush did .... he found the perfect enemy ... terrorists... to start wars
mela jekk it-tariffi kif se jigu riveduti wara t-tahdidiet mal-unions se jkunu gusti,ifisser li kif thabbru x-xahar li ghadda kienu se jkunu ngusti.
il-unions taw lezzjoni lill dan il-gvern,u l'kull gvern li jista jkollu dan in-nazzjon,li meta nahdmu flimkien,insibu l-aktar soluzzjoni gusta,soluzzjoni li bis-slogan wahdu ma sibnijiex.
f'ottubru il-gvern wera arroganza kbira meta,minkejja li hemm stabbilit il-qafas fejn jigu diskussi dawn il-materji,ha d-decizjoni wahdu f'materja daqshekk importanti ghall poplu.
irid jinghad ukoll li il-gvern wera maturita meta,minkejja is-sahha esekuttiva li ghadu,xi haga li il-unions m'ghandhomx,rega mar fuq il-mejda tad-diskussjoni bil-konsegwenza li se jkun rebah kullhadd. fejn id-diskussjoni tkun fuq il-logika tas-sewwa, il-pjattaforma ghanda tkun ugwali ghall-imsiehba socjali kollha.
If you were in Malta 15 days ago you should know that he spoke in Parliament and gave not only his views but concrete suggestions on what should be done. So you are either living on the moon or on GONZI PLANET !!!!