What’s in the Budget for you

•Part-time self-employed women can choose to pay a weekly NI rate of 15 per cent of their income if it is below the current obligatory contribution of €26.37.
•Part of income to be earned by people on social assistance will not fall under the means test that qualifies families for such assistance, so that married women will not be put off seeking work.
•New childcare centres at Ħal-Far, Xewkija and Bulebel industrial estates, as well as in Santa Venera and Floriana, among others.
•Funding to local councils to provide child-minding services for children.

Pensioners, Elderly

•Pensioners to receive the full cost-of-living allowance.
•Services pensioners to gain another €200 under pension re-assessment.
•Zammit Clapp Hospital to be developed into a nursing home.
•More day care centres to be opened around the island.

Athletes

•Fund to help promising athletes employed in private sector to work reduced hours so as to get better training.
•Recognised sports organisations to be given grants equivalent to 15.25 per cent of cost of equipment bought for athletes’ development.
•Clubs to be assisted to attract foreign clubs and associations to train or compete in Malta.
•Fifteen per cent refund on the price of bicycles, up to €150.

Students

•Bigger tax deduction for parents of children in private schools, to a maximum of €1,200 for primary and €1,600 for secondary school children.
•Private schools to get a refund from government of 15.2 per cent on new construction.
•A new system of “elearning” to be commissioned for state schools.
•Pilot project on the use of netbooks by primary school students.
•Colleges to be given funding for entrepreneurship training.
•National Centre for Interactive Science to be set up at Villa Bighi, Kalkara, to inculcate interest in research at every age.
•Students in first three years of secondary school to be given credit of €15 to be spent on artistic and cultural activities.
•Assistance to children and youths with artistic talent.
•More funding to the university to sustain its expansion.

Drivers

•Excise tax on fuel to increase by 3c a litre.
•Repair and building programme on both major and residential roads to carry on, with 80 new roads being built by the first six months.
•Fifteen per cent off the cost of a small, new car with low emissions, up to €2,000, for those who scrap their old car.
•Amount of carbon dioxide to be reduced from 30 to 20 per cent in the computation of registration tax, to encourage purchase of hybrid vehicles.
•A subsidy of €5,000 on the installation of grid-connected renewable energy sources for those buying electric vehicles.
•Annual circulation licence on electric vehicles to go down to €10 from €75.
•One licence only to be paid for collections of classic vehicles.
•Registration tax of 6.5 per cent on racing vehicles to be removed.

Workers

•Cost-of-living allowance of €1,16 per week.
•A weekly allowance of €25 for those on a minimum wage if they do a training programme.
•A new unit to check that all government contractors pay full wages and benefits to their employees.

Patients

•Pharmacy of your choice scheme to be extend to new localities.
•Waiting lists to be reduced for various operations.
•Mental health service in the community to be extended to Floriana, Kirkop and Gżira.

Farmers

•Social security contribution for farmers and breeders to go down to 12 per cent.
•Special funding to ease the impact on breeders of the rise in wheat and cereals prices.

Smokers, Drinkers

•Excise duty on cigarettes and tobacco to rise by up to four per cent.
•Tax on local beer to go up by slightly under 1c on a 25cl bottle and by 13 per cent on spirits.

Consumers

•More medicines will be reduced in price.
•Three new farmers’ markets.
•Equipment such as petrol pumps, speed cameras, gas bottling machines and scales, will be verified on a regular basis so nobody will pay more than they should.
•Consumers will be informed and empowered via a new publication.

Beneficiaries

•Supplementary assistance to be increased to a maximum of €4.57 for single persons and €8.13 for married couples.
•Means test to be adjusted so that cost-of-living allowance will not mean the loss of benefits.
•Further exemptions on the purchase of wheelchair accessible vehicles, whose licence payment will also be abolished.

Householders

•Aid scheme for the purchase of solar water heaters to be extended, with a subsidy of up to €400 on the price.

Gozitans

•More recreational spaces for families, including new public garden in Marsalforn.
•Advertising campaign to promote Gozo as a separate destination.
•Building to start on a new covered pool.

Enterprise

•Businesses that send in their VAT return and payment online will be granted a seven-day extension on the deadline, in order to help their cash flow.
•Firms employing up to 10 people will have a 40 per cent tax credit on costs, up to €25,000, on investment and creation of new jobs, under the MicroCredit scheme.
•Help and training for companies seeking to export to foreign markets.
•Help for firms striving for quality to franchise their products and services abroad.
•A 150 per cent tax cut, up to €10,000, on investment to improve quality of products or services.
•A fund to help firms team up with foreign companies for research and development programmes.
•Hutment area in Kordin to accommodate 66 SMEs.
•Civil servants to be trained to better understand the needs of businesses and to support them.
•Reduction in company tax equivalent of 125 per cent on amount spent on electric cars.
•Those with an annual turnover of under €7,000 will not have to be VAT registered.

Tourism Operators

•Rate of VAT on accommodation to go up from five to seven per cent, to fund further investment in the tourism sector.
•A fund to help businesses develop their product.
•Soft loans to hotels and restaurants for projects that diminish their dependence on traditional energy sources.
•More incentives to towns and villages to attract tourists and more investment in tourism zones and embellishment of rural areas, as well as a nature trail to be built around Ħagar Qim and Imnajdra.