The Labour Party expects Monday's budget to be an exercise in prudence, honesty and transparency.
Finance spokesman Karmenu Vella said it would be irresponsible for the government to slash the top income tax rate now (a PN electoral promise) because it would simply be an electoral gimmick like it was when the promise was made.
Mr Vella said that when the PN made that promise in 2008, the prime minister had said it was the PN's solution to the impending economic crisis. The government would have recouped the revenue lost over a three-year period because it would stimulate economic growth.
He said had it been introduced in the first budget as promised it could have been the right response for the country as it entered the recession.
But introducing that measure now was irresponsible and Labour expected the government to be honest about the matter.
The government should say why it had not introduced the tax cap in the first budget and if its answer was that this was not possible at the time, it should be honest and acknowledge it had been an electoral gimmick.
What the PL expected was for government to allocate its resources in a judicious way to encourage economic growth, he said.
MEP Edward Scicluna said one of the proposals suggested by the Labour Party and on which it also presented a study was to increase maternity leave by four weeks.
This, he said, would help increase the work force by encouraging more women to stay in employment. He urged government to do a u-turn on this issue.
The government is acting like a puppy in front of a ferocious dog. It is not realising that this ferocious dog has now been unleashed by the directive
The PL also criticised the light way the government had approached the warning issued by the European Commission earlier this week.
Malta is one of the countries to receive an "early warning" letter from Brussels. The country has been asked to send the Commission convincing evidence, by the end of December, of "sufficient and permanent fiscal measures" to rein its structural deficit in a sustainable manner.
The early warning system forms part of a new economic governance mechanism that gives Brussels closer scrutiny of fiscal affairs in member states. The EU executive can recommend fines for those member states which keep ignoring its warnings and recommendations.
Prof. Scicluna said that unless Malta gave a satisfactory explanation on how it intended to reduce the deficit and debt, the Commission could impose a €12 million fine on Malta.
Malta would have to deposit this money on which it would initially earn interest but if another six months passed and the government's response was still not satisfactory to the Commission, it would lose the interest and eventually the fine, which could even go up €30 million if the Commission found that the figures being presented by the government did not tally.
An EU directive on economic and fiscal governance made it clear that if the Commission's forecast did not tally with that of the government it would be the Commission's forecast that holds way.
"The government is acting like a puppy in front of a ferocious dog. It is not realising that this ferocious dog has now been unleashed by the directive," he said.
Economic Affairs spokesman Charles Mangion made reference to what private companies' CEOs told The Times this week that further investment in Malta by their mother companies was conditional on competitiveness.
Their biggest problem was not wages but government induced costs, including transport, rents and energy prices.
Dr Mangion said the government should give an account of how red tape had been cut over the past three years to facilitate businesses. He reiterated his party's position that fiscal consolidation had to be accompanied by economic growth and referred to the EU's warning in a report that strategies and plans were not enough -implementation was crucial.
On water and electricity rates, Mr Vella said he expected the government to guarantee it would honour its pledge that if the cost of oil went down, bills would also go down. The government, he said, was giving mixed messages.
Asked what could be done to lower the prices, he said that while the return on capital employed in the UK amounted to 4.4 per cent, the regulator in Malta accepted an 8.5 per cent rate.