Malta's interest on debt next year would be highter than the education bill,. It would also be higher than the health bill or the bill on the building of new roads, Labour leader Joseph Muscat said this evening.

Speaking in Parliament during the budget debate he said that Malta was, according to the International Monetary Fund, the 16^th country most in debt in the world.

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, he said, was the same person who, before the election, when he knew that the waves were coming, promised that the deficit would be €68 million, which, after the election, turned out to be €233 million or 242 per cent more.

The government had collected €24 million less than forecast and spent €156 million more. This was the price of favours tax payers were paying for.

The deficit in 2009 had to be €98.8 million but this went up to €300 million. Expenditure had to go down by €17 million, but was increased by €80 million. This year’s budget, Dr Muscat said, did not say what had happened about the deficit.

This Prime Minister and his government had a record of failures so how could they be believed when they said they would solve the deficit problem.

The government did not say from where it would be reducing expenditure. People were willing to make sacrifices but wanted the government to make more. They wanted a government this Prime Minister could not offer.

The main increase on last year’s expenditure was on personal emoluments, on which €23 million more than forecast had been spent.

The debt had increased by €153 million more than expected and the country was paying half a million euros interest a day on debt.

The budget surplus which had been promised for this year had also not appeared.

While before the election the Prime Minister had promised a budget surplus by this year, he said after the election this would come in 2011. A table in the budget now showed that by the end of the legislature the country would have a debt of €4,700 million. This was after selling all the country’s assets.

And the Prime Minister had the cheek to say that unlike other countries, Malta had faced the challenges of the international crisis without introducing any austerity measures. The increase in the water and electricity bill was the toughest austerity measure in the past 25 years, Dr Muscat said.

He said that taxes would again increase next year but to get their cost of living increase people had to wait until January.

The government would be getting €16 million more from petrol and diesel but the price of diesel and kerosene was again increased yesterday.

It would be making more from cement, court fines, research and commercial rentals and the promised removal of television licences had not been implemented.

Last year, the government had reduced the excise on beer and spirits on the argument that there was too much contraband because of the high cost. This year the government was putting the tax up again and was forecasting an income of €1 million less. What was the logic behind this?

Dr Muscat read apersonalised reply to a woman from Prime Minister Gonzi before the election when the woman asked him when would the income tax be reduced.

The Prime Minister had promised this would be reduced immediately after the election, strengthening the economy by leaving more money in the peoples’ pockets.

He had answered her in three sentences which were full of lies. Three budgets had passed since the election and the come tax had not yet been reduced.

Dr Muscat said that there was a fundamental choice in politics – to say the truth or to lie, the Prime Minister chose to lie.

The Prime Minister’s cry was that he had increased the country’s expense on health and education but what had actually happened was that certain estimates were moved from one budget to another.

Dr Muscat pointed out that major infrastructural projects, such as those of City Gate, the Corporate Village and White Rocks were not mentioned in the budget. How were they to be financed?

Last year, the Prime Minister had made a list of promises which were broken. These included refunds on research and technology expenses, infrastructural work at the fish market, maintenance to the breakwater, the setting up of a micro-enterprise park at Mellieha, investment in industrial estates, a micro-credit scheme, training courses for the film industry, a flooding project, a sports complex at Kirkop and a micro enterprise park at Xewkija.

Most of these promises were being made again in this year’s budget, he said.