VAT being charged on injections - Muscat

A five per cent value added tax was being levied on injections, including those for children, Labour leader Joseph Muscat said yesterday.

Addressing party faithful at an activity in Birkirkara, Dr Muscat said it was unacceptable that VAT was being levied on medicinal products despite an exemption the government obtained from the EU.

He said Cyprus, a country that joined the EU with Malta in 2004, managed to strike a deal with the EU and did not levy VAT on injections.

On a primary health report he revealed earlier this week, Dr Muscat said Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi was not credible when he pledges that health services would remain free.

Dr Gonzi was the same person who promised one thing to dockyard workers, mini-van, bus and taxi owners, Go employees, teachers, doctors, hunters and trappers and then did the opposite of what he had promised.

Asked about a possible low turnout and the number of voting documents that have not yet been collected for the MEP election, Dr Muscat said the figures that appeared in The Sunday Times, which attributed a landslide victory for Labour, were not the same figures the party had in hand.

With regard to the advice given by bishops on how people should vote in the upcoming elections, Dr Muscat said he agreed, adding that the minorities in Malta, such as gays and lesbians, and children born out of wedlock, among others, needed to be protected.

On irregular immigration, Dr Muscat insisted that the veto, an important tool, should not be discarded and if a country said it would not use this option, it would not be taken seriously. Had it been him, he would have used the veto on the voluntary burden sharing agreement.

Referring to Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt's admission that the utility rates should not have been introduced before January, Dr Muscat said the Labour Party was expecting the government to refund consumers for the amounts they paid between October and the end of December.

Addressing the same activity, MEP hopeful Christian Zammit said many Gozo Channel employees who were Labourites were being discriminated against at their place of work.