(Adds PL's and PN's statements)

Finance Minister Tonio Fenech said today that EU figures showing Malta to have the lowest income tax confirmed the government's commitment to leave more money in the people's pockets.

He pointed out that that although tax revenue was essential for the funding of governemnt services, income tax was reduced in the last three budgets.

The figures, issued by Eurostat, showed that the Maltese paid the least income tax in the EU, but income tax rose fastest in Cyprus and Malta between 2000 and 2007.

The Finance Ministry pointed out that the average income tax of 20.1% in Malta was the lowest of the 27 EU member states. The average in the EU is 34%, and it exceeded 40% in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria, Finland and Sweden.

The ministry said an overview of all taxes paid by the Maltese also confirmed local levels as being well below the EU average. The Maltese average was 34.7%, which was 5% below the EU average and 6% less than the eurozone average.

In its reaction, the Labour Party said it seemed the government did not learn anything from the people's message given through the June 6 elections and tried to give the impression that the Maltese and Gozitans did not pay a lot of taxes.

For the same Eurostat statistics quoted by the government showed that Malta had the second biggest increase in taxes from among EU states between 2000 and 2007.

The government's statement, the PL said, was confirmation that it had lost control and was falling apart.

The PN said that the more time passed, the clearer it was becoming that when the PL criticised, it failed to provide serious and concrete solutions to the challenges the country was facing. It hoped that, in the interest of the country, it would change direction and start placing the interest of the country before the partisan one.

See also

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090623/local/despite-higher-taxes-maltese-still-pay-less