Labour MEP Edward Scicluna has denied suggesting increasing taxation to reduce public debt, an implication made by the Prime Minister.

“I strongly refute this claim by the Prime Minister, which is completely baseless and just a ploy to deflect attention,” Prof. Scicluna said in a statement.

Addressing the Nationalist Party’s General Council on Sunday, Lawrence Gonzi asked Opposition Leader Joseph Muscat whether, to reduce debt, he planned to increase taxes, as Prof. Scicluna had suggested on the TV programme Bondìplus.

Prof. Scicluna said his numerous contributions to the media during the Budget debate must have “annoyed the Prime Minister greatly”.

“I challenge the Prime Minister to quote the exact words I said, which, in his fertile imagination, were construed as me having advised taxation increases on industry in this economic situation,” he retorted.

Prof. Scicluna said the only occasion where the issue of taxes arose was on last week’s Bondìplus that discussed the extension of maternity leave when, according to him, the interviewer tried “to put words” in his mouth.

“When I remarked that, unlike other European countries, Malta sees the full cost of maternity leave being borne by the employers of female workers I also said that in other countries the cost is less burdensome and less discriminatory because it is shared,” he said. “At this point, the interviewer, visibly and audibly prompted by the Finance Minister (who was in the studio), asked me whether I am suggesting that the cost be added to the national insurance contribution.”

Prof. Scicluna said that during the programme he insisted that was not what he was suggesting.

“With continued badgering on this point I continued repeating several times that this burden already exists on industry, so no new burdens are being suggested,” he said.

Prof. Scicluna added that the government was getting “hysterical” because it was in a tight spot and urged the Prime Minister to heed European Economic and ­Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn’s warning letter and prove by December that the fiscal measures adopted in the Budget were “sufficient”, “permanent” and “convincing”.