Muscat calls for fair, responsible Budget that eases burdens

Labour leader Joseph Muscat said today that tomorrow's Budget would be judged on the results it would give in concrete terms to the ordinary public and the important sectors of the economy.

He said that while the economy was reported to be growing, the growth was not trickling down to the ordinary people.

The Budget, he said, would be judged on the basis of fairness, responsibility, job creation and the way it would support the important sectors of the economy, such as tourism

The Budget, he added, needed to promote investment but also include measures to ease the cost of living, not least the water and electricity tariffs which were the most severe austerity measure in 25 years.

Taxpayers, he said, also expected measures to counter incompetence, such as the incompetence of Arms Ltd. It was noteworthy, Dr Muscat said, that the Minister of Finance would not say in Parliament if the management members of Arms Ltd had been given a performance bonus. Furthermore, it had now been learnt that the new CEO was being paid a total of €85,000

Dr Muscat said he expected measures to fight the 'corruption tax'.

Dr Muscat said the Whistleblower Act which the government had proposed had important loopholes which negated the possibility of people reporting wrongdoing, particularly by their superiors. Protection to those who were prepared to reveal corrupt politicians needed to be strengthened, Dr Muscat said.