ME assisting Maltese companies in Libya

The government is rescheduling tax payments of Maltese companies which operate in Libya or which export to the Arab state and which have found themselves with cash flow problems, the Finance Ministry said.

The ministry was referring to a statement made by Opposition leader Joseph Muscat in the morning, who said that these companies were not being assisted.

He said that although they should not be assisted through bail-outs or measures which would burden by the tax payers, they should be helped by other means such as scheduled tax payments.

Dr Muscat said that if Malta had the political will to help other countries such as Greece to get out of their situation, it should also have the political will to help the Maltese.

The minsitry said that when the crisis started in Libya, Malta Enterprise coordinating a centralised exercise to establish contact with all Maltese companies involved.

Companies which could not collect money due to them and had cash flow problems were having their tax payments rescheduled.

The ministry said Dr Muscat confused the assistance to Maltese who had businesses in Libya to its loan to the Greek govenrment, which had to be repaid with interest.

It was clear that the Labour leader lacked political maturity and only tried to be popular, the ministry said.