There was a time when a Nationalist Prime Minister wanted to make Budget Day just an ordinary day, a non-event. That was always a tall order. The Budget reflects the Government’s armoury with which to try to influence the economy. It is also the mechanism used to announce and implement social measures. Hardly ordinary action.

The Budget will also be an instrument which might raise the (Finance) Minister’s own chances of winning the contest for his party’s deputy leadership- Lino Spiteri

That Prime Minister, Eddie Fenech Adami, succeeded in other things, but not this one. To understand just how important the Budget is, simply reflect on how the current Prime Minister has been straining to ensure that his Minister of Finance manages to present the Budget for 2013 to the House of Representatives before he has to announce the date of the coming general election.

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi has had to juggle with all manner and shapes of balls to get to this stage. He had to tolerate the fact that he can no longer command an automatic majority in the House, that he has actually lost moral authority to govern. To him, how to push up his party’s chances to win the general election was all that mattered, no matter how thick a political skin he had to develop to achieve his partisan aim.

So, Minister Tonio Fenech will definitely present the Budget for 2013. He will do so in less than a week’s time.

Through a quirk of fate it will not only be a Budget intended to boost the Nationalist Party’s electoral chances. It will also be an instrument which might raise the Minister’s own chances of winning the contest for his party’s deputy leadership. Without saying it, he will be making clear that this is what he does best, help his government govern, whereas his opponent, Simon Busuttil, has absolutely zilch experience of government, not even at the level of a local council.

That background is interesting fare for gossip and speculation. The Budget proper is above both. It should be a serious mechanism crafted to reach given objectives to propel the country forward. The main objective will be to boost economic growth and the creation of jobs. That will be done in a contest whereby strenuous efforts will be made to keep the structural deficit as low as can be, without introducing fresh taxation. That objective will be twinned with an aim to rein in the ballooning public debt, which persists in overshooting the Finance Minister’s target.

The Budget will also aim to improve the situation of those who have to survive precariously on social assistance. This year, the Finance Minister will try to achieve all that, while leaving space for him to give some sweeteners to the electorate. One such sweetener, which will take some gall to present, will be a reiteration of the old unkept promise to review the top tax rate, to broaden the bands substantially before the highest marginal rate of 35 per cent is reached. It will take some doing, keeping a straight face in promising it yet again.

This year the atmosphere has been charged with a promise by the Leader of the Opposition. Joseph Muscat has said that while the Opposition will vote against the Budget, as budgetary votes are votes of confidence, if elected to office in the looming general election it will implement positive elements which will be included in the Budget for 2013.

That took observers by surprise. Normally the government in waiting will be expected to say that it will present a Budget of its own without delay. That, however, could open a hiatus of uncertainty. Joseph Muscat seems determined not to create uncertainty and to put as many minds at rest as he can target.

Actually, it will not be difficult to reach that promise. The Budget, as always, will consist largely of non-discretionary expenditure. That is expenditure which will have to be made, whoever is in office. It includes outlays on departmental wages and salaries, the police and the armed forces, on pensions and other extensive social security provisions, plus normal repair and maintenance. Such expenditure has to continue, otherwise the country would grind to a halt as the United States threatens to do.

The expenditure will also include enhancements to wages and salaries according to the public sector collective agreement. Joseph Muscat is making it clear that he will honour the agreement, and also aid programmes to industry and other economic agents. That is the natural thing to do, leaving the discretionary part of the Budget to be evaluated.

That is largely made up of the capital budget, the most important part of the Budget in so far as economic growth is concerned.

That will be reviewed by the incoming government, if there is an electoral change, although parts of it are too far gone to allow scope for revision.

The Leader of the Opposition’s objective is well meant and should be well received.

However it cannot be the end of the story. It will be important for a new Labour government to dissect the government finances in the first three months of its life. It has to determine the correctness of the revenue and expenditure forecasts, the assumptions underlying them, the methodology used, the resources likely to be truly available.

The Budget of the country is hardly a non-event. Particularly so if there is a change of government, as the Labour Party found out to its dismay when it was elected in 1996.