The government still plans to present the 2013 Budget this autumn and will continue to focus on the big picture, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said yesterday.
Addressing a public dialogue at the Nationalist Party’s headquarters in Pietà, Dr Gonzi recalled the various promises made by Labour in 1996 and which, when implemented in government, caused big damage to the Maltese economy.
Admitting that recent internal problems within the PN were also important and had to be dealt with, Dr Gonzi said that these could never come before the bread-and-butter issues that the government was tackling.
“Yes, let’s address internal problems but let’s also understand that our priority is to see the country moving forward. I don’t want to see Malta humiliated like other countries have been,” Dr Gonzi said, referring to the turmoil in the eurozone.
He said that, following the 2008 electoral mandate, the PN had “not only the right but also the duty” to govern throughout its full term.
Drawing parallels between the present Labour leadership and the 1996 Labour government, Dr Gonzi said that the electorate had to beware of false promises.
“In 1996, a man called Alfred Sant, with Joseph Muscat standing behind him, said he would remove VAT. We wondered how that was possible. The result was a deficit that went through the roof and 33 new taxes, including one on health care,” he said.
The last Labour government had also raised electricity rates when oil prices were a third of what they were today, the Prime Minister recalled.
The price of oil also came into play when the Dr Gonzi spoke about Air Malta. He said that, through the restructuring plan, which last month received EU approval, progress was already being registered.
“If it weren’t for the rise in the price of oil, Air Malta’s losses would have been sliced by a further €17 million,”he said.
Last week, the airline announced an annual loss of €30 million, €4 million below last year’s total.
On tourism, Dr Gonzi said that if things continued at the existing pace, 2012 was likely to be another record-breaking year for tourist arrivals.
Concluding the dialogue on an upbeat note, Dr Gonzi predicted that Malta’s economy would go from strength to strength, hosting centres of excellence in financial services, digital gaming and biochemistry.
“I won’t promise heaven on earth,” he said, “but the PN has confidence in the Maltese people and if we work hard we can overcome challenges.”