The Prime Minister said today that it would be irresponsible for the government to reduce income tax now, at a time when the world was still in financial crisis.
Amid uproar in Parliament, Dr Gonzi said the Opposition was not being responsible when it urged him to implement now, his electoral promise to reduce the top rate of income tax.
"Do you honestly expect me to be so irresponsible, in the midst of of this international crisis, to keep a promise that cannot be implemented at this time?" Dr Gonzi asked amid interruptions.
"This is absolute irresponsibility by an opposition party which has no idea what it means to take responsible decisions for the country.
"What I tell the leader of the Opposition and his colleagues is that this promise will be implemented at the appropriate time, like the others..." Dr Gonzi said amid further uproar.
Dr Gonzi noted that Opposition MPs were shouting that the tax cuts would only come on the eve of a general election. It showed, he said, that the Opposition's thinking was according to electoral timetables. (laughter on both sides of the House).
Labour wanted the government to cut taxes now because they were already worried of losing the election, Dr Gonzi said.
As to Dr Muscat's jibe that Dr Fenech Adami was better than him in managing the economy, Dr Gonzi said this was no problem. After all, Dr Fenech Adami had been better than Mintoff, Sant, Mifsud Bonnici and Muscat, and he was therefore in good company (applause from the government benches).
Mr Mintoff, Dr Gonzi observed, had never lost an occasion to speak about job creation. Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici had never missed an opportunity to employ people, even hundreds just before the elections. It was only Alfred Sant and Joseph Muscat who had removed job creation from the Labour political agenda, Dr Gonzi said.
In another part of his speech, Dr Gonzi referred to Dr Muscat's comment on Monday that the government was taxing the country dry. He said that the proportion of the worker's income which went to taxes and social security contributions in Malta was among the lowest in Europe and lower than in Cyprus, which had suddenly become Labour's benchmark.
Dr Gonzi also observed that the unemployment rate in Cyprus rose to 7.2% this year while that in Malta had gone down to 6.1%. Furthermore, the cost of living in Cyrpus had gone up by 2.1% while in Malta it went down by 1.2%.
Furthermore, only three days ago, the Governor of the Cyprus Central Bank warned the government that the deficit was rising to 7% and he called for a wage freeze in order to avoid the need to cut pay.
EU BUDGET CAP
Dr Gonzi said he could not understand how, on Monday, Dr Muscat criticised him for having backed calls for administrative costs in the European Commission not to rise by more than 2.9% instead of the proposed 6%.
Dr Muscat had claimed that this position weakened Malta's position in the EU Budget negotiations for 2014-2020.
Dr Gonzi said the two were different, but Dr Muscat was still acting like an MEP and taking the European Parliament's position.
Malta and the other member states felt that at a time when national governments were reining in their spending, the European Union should do likewise. The talks on the next EU Budget were not due to start before next year, Dr Gonzi said, and would not be affected.
Indeed, he said, he knew of no party leader other than Dr Muscat who backed the EU proposals to raise its budget.
This was ridiculous. He knew of no other party leader who was in favour of increasing the EU administrative budget by 6%.
Dr Gonzi said the proposals made by Dr Muscat on Monday would 'run the country into a wall' and he actually pitied (Opposition finance spokesman) Charles Mangion who on Monday was, on TV, shown figures of how the Budget deficit would spike if the Labour proposals were taken on board.
(See other stories in the Budget section)