Government accused of missing own targets

The government's over-optimistic revenue projections for 2009, presented during the Budget just a month before the close of the year, were to blame for the higher than expected deficit, according to the opposition's finance spokesman.

Charles Mangion quoted recent National Statistics Office figures, which showed that the public coffers ended last year with a deficit that was €40 million higher than projected.

"The confusion in the figures makes me wonder whether the Finance Minister knew what he was doing," Dr Mangion said, insisting the government kept missing its own deficit targets.

He was speaking on recent statistics published by the NSO and others presented in Parliament.

Dr Mangion observed that, in the Budget, the government had projected it would rake in €813 million from income tax when reality showed that revenue amounted to €739 million.

The same held true for social security contributions. The government had projected revenue of €536 million but €526 million had been collected by year's end.

The NSO said 2009 ended with a deficit of €297 million, or €40 million more than Budget projections.

Dr Mangion said the departure from the projected deficit had come about even though the government spent €64 million less on energy subsidies and capital expenditure was also down.

He said the government deficit would still end up being acceptable to the EU because the Commission also included revenue between January and February, during which time the government had extraordinary revenue of €30 million from the tax penalties amnesty scheme.

Dr Mangion pointed out that Malta now had debt fast approaching the €4 billion mark. This excluded the debt of major corporations such as Enemalta and Transport Malta, which were considered separately.