A Labour government would ensure that the benefits promised in the Budget would be given retroactively from January 1, Opposition Leader Joseph Muscat promised the electorate yesterday.
We don’t have confidence in this Prime Minister
The Government had found a way to immediately increase the price of fuel and cigarettes and so “it shouldn’t be a problem to find a way to give COLA in creases and other benefits from January 1,” Dr Muscat said during a phone-in on One Radio.
However, if the Government tried to play games and held back from giving the cost-of-living allowance, a Labour Government “led by myself would do all it takes to grant this retroactively as from the beginning of the new year,” he said.
Dr Muscat said he did not know what would happen when the vote on the Budget was taken in Parliament, but he pointed out that it was the sole responsibility of the Government to ensure that it passed.
“The way things stand, the price of petrol, gas and excise duty increased when the Finance Minister read the Budget speech.
“But now the Prime Minister is casting a doubt on the other benefits if the Budget doesn’t go through and said that it wouldn’t be an insurmountable problem to find a way to give these benefits,” Dr Muscat said.
Dr Muscat said he wanted to ensure certainty and stability to families, students, pensioners, the self-employed and businesses.
Those who disagreed with the Labour Party’s decision to retain the Budget’s framework if it failed to be voted in by Parliament did not understand how the EU worked, he said.
“We have to think of every scenario and if the Budget doesn’t go through, a new government will have to present another one.
“If the Budget was going to change, then the Government presenting it must go before the EU again to renegotiate and this creates uncertainty.”
Talks with the EU, in April or May, would be about the Budget presented by the new government and the next seven years of the EU, not about what should have come into force months before, he added.
Dr Muscat reiterated that the Opposition would not vote in favour of the Budget in view of the fact that the Prime Minister had declared that approving the Budget would be a vote of confidence in himself and his government.
“We don’t have confidence in this Prime Minister,” he said.
No Opposition had ever voted in favour of the Budget, Dr Muscat added. This Budget targeted a category of society that had worked hard but the Opposition would think of those who were forgotten: the middle class, families, workers, students and the self-employed.
The Nationalist Party said that if Dr Muscat wanted families to take advantage of the measures in the Budget, the Opposition should vote in favour.