Gatt denies having 'lied' in parliament
Infrastructure minister Austin Gatt has denied he lied to Parliament when he replied to a parliamentary question in December on the sewage tax.
Replying to the charge made yesterday by Labour leader Joseph Muscat, Dr Gatt said he had been asked by Labour MP Anton Refalo whether the Maltese government was “bound to impose a tax” and he had replied that the only Maltese government that had wanted to tax the people on sewerage was the government which he had formed part of.
Dr Gatt said every one of those words was true. And it was worth remembering that the Sant government had wanted to introduce that tax without building any new sewage treatment plants.
Furthermore, the question was about a tax, whereas the EU directive spoke about a tariff, which was different.
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John Pisani
Dec 1st 2008, 21:01
TAX = MONEY FROM MY POCKETS
TARIFF = MONEY FROM MY POCKETS
Where is the difference?
Are we all stupids or Austin Gatt THINKS we are all stupids?
Eman Formosa
Dec 1st 2008, 20:05
Ha! Ha! Ha!
Call it what ever you want dear Minister, fact remains it has to come out of our pockets!
J.Buhagiar
Dec 1st 2008, 18:07
Tariffs taxes what gobbledegoog is this
As long as its coming from my income I dont really care what its called
F J Brincat
Dec 1st 2008, 17:49
Very funny. Hilarious! I have seen weasels dying of laughter. Dr Gatt should be a comedian.
With regards to the playing with words; most of us are fed up to the teeth with the double speak and half truths.
Tony Borg
Dec 1st 2008, 17:24
In Maltese we say that "Nofs verita' hi aghar minn gidba".
A tariff or a tax?.........the end result is the same.... we have to fork out more money.
Mark Bonello
Dec 1st 2008, 16:56
Its quite funny how the honourable minister chose to defend his previous claim. I thought that mickey mouse was coming in January, guess I was mistaken.
JOE SCERRI
Dec 1st 2008, 16:54
Tariff or tax, call it whatever you like. It's still money out of our pockets, unless 1 euro as a tariff costs less than 1 euro as a tax !!
michael fenech
Dec 1st 2008, 16:50
SO, IS MR. GATT TRYING TO TELL US THAT TARIFFS ARE NOT THE SAME AS TAXES ????
CAN YOU PLEASE PULL THE OTHER ONE .
Andrea Coppini
Dec 1st 2008, 16:49
Good to see someone has the guts to challenge Gatt... and Gatt losing sweat by playing around with words. Looks like Muscat is already winning some new attention.
lgalea
Dec 1st 2008, 16:46
Could Agostini Pio please refer to the Agreement with the European Bank where the EFApn Government had obliged itself to introduce the sewage tax to get a loan?
Joe Cassar
Dec 1st 2008, 16:44
What a relief! it's a TARIFF not a tax!
For a moment, I was a bit worried! :)
D. Scerri
Dec 1st 2008, 16:28
"A tariff is a tax imposed on goods when they are moved across a political boundary. They are usually associated with protectionism, the economic policy of restraining trade between nations. For political reasons, tariffs are usually imposed on imported goods, although they may also be imposed on exported goods."
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarrif