Gatt denies lying to Parliament

Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt yesterday denied he had lied over the introduction of sewage tax by pointing out that in his reply to a parliamentary question he did not say that such a tax would not be introduced.

Labour leader Joseph Muscat accused Dr Gatt on Sunday of lying in Parliament last year when he dismissed the suggestion that the government could tax people on sewage. Dr Gatt was asked last December whether the government will have to levy a tax for the operation of the sewage purification plant in Gozo, and his reply was that "the only Maltese government to tax people on drainage was a Labour one".

"You're a liar. You had the audacity to lie to the country's highest institution. How can we trust you on anything else?" the Labour leader asked.

Yesterday, Dr Gatt reproduced the exchange in Parliament and defended himself saying that nowhere in his statement did he say there would be no tax on sewage.

"It's not my fault if Dr Muscat hasn't yet learnt how to choose his words when speaking in Parliament," concluded Dr Gatt.

The tax in fact will be levied, as Dr Gatt himself announced in Parliament recently, and water users might have to pay extra due to EU-imposed deadlines that the government has missed, The Times recently reported.