The prime minister said this morning that the PN on Monday would announce its costings to show how its electoral programme pledges are sustainable.

Speaking in a Radio 101 interview, Dr Gonzi said the PN electoral programme aimed at improving the people's quality of life through job creation, putting more money in people's pockets through lower taxes for all strata and better health and education services, including greater emphasis on diabetes in the former, and technology in the latter.

He said a PN government would also improve civil rights and amend the definition of neutrality in the Constitution.Dr Gonzi said the electoral programme was built on the lesson, learnt by the whole world over the past five years, that one could not give out hand-outs for short-term gain because they could get long-term pain.

Therefore, on Monday the PN would publish its costings to show how its programme was sustainable and the government could still aim for a balanced budget.

He said the PL was already giving up on the country's priorities by ridiculing the PN's commitment to create 25,000 new jobs in the next five years. Yet this was essential if economic growth was to be maintained. The PN created 20,000 jobs in difficult circumstances in the past five years and he was confident it could do even better by continuing to create new sectors of economic activity.

Dr Gonzi stressed that the country's finances needed to remain on a sound footing, enabling the government to intervene if problems cropped up, in the same way as, in the past five years, it gave direct assistance to a number of factories which were on the verge of sacking workers.

Dr Gonzi said Joseph Muscat still had to say where the country needed to change direction.

PN PROPOSALS - ADJUSTED NATIONAL INSURANCE CONTRIBUTIONS

Dr Gonzi said that the PN is proposing, for the first time, that workers who opt to work only part-time can pay an adjusted national insurance contribution to improve their pension. Secondly, those who work full time and part time can opt to raise their contribution and have a higher pension.

Those under 25 and the long-term unemployed who open a business will have tax waived for two years and their national insurance will be credited to them. These benefits will be extended to three years to Gozitans and to all women.

Gozitans who open a business and employ at least two people can also have additional incentives.

TAXES AND SUCCESSION DUTY

The PN was promising to adjust all tax bands so that all people would benefit from tax cuts.

With regard to succession duty, the PN was saying that children would not pay duty on all property they inherit or receive as donation from their parents.

Those who leased their property for residential purposes would by charged tax at 15% instead of the current 35%.

He reiterated that parents would be able to use their sick leave when their children fell sick and they needed to care over them.

The PN was also promising a voucher system to cover the costs of childcare. Parents, he said, would continue to chose the childcare centre of their choice. The voucher would be for a fixed amount which would fully or partially cover the costs of childcare, depending on the selected facility.  The vouchers would be given to parents in full or part-time employment as well as those who were studying.

Such measures, he said, were social but also had an important bearing on economic growth.

PENSIONS

On pensions, Dr Gonzi said PN government had been gradually addressing the injustice caused to those who had their overseas services pension deducted because of the two-thirds pension scheme. Such deductions would stop.

The PN was now saying that pensioners who paid for a private pension would now receive that pension in full, along with the state pension. 

With regard to those who commuted their Treasury Pension, the party which was commuted would no longer be deducted from the social security pension.

The PN was also promising improvement to a range of other allowances, such as the Widows Pension. Widows/widowers who lost their pension on remarriage would again be eligible for it.

BATTLE AGAINST DIABETES

On health, Dr Gonzi said a PN government would not let up on the focus on fighting cancer, but it would also open a new front against diabetes, of which there was a high incidence in Malta. The aim was to reduce its incidence and the costs borne by patients.

EDUCATION

Dr Gonzi reiterated the PN promise to give a tablet to primary and secondary school children, saying technology was an essential tool for learning. The PN proposal, he said, was very different than Labour's, with the PN spelling out how the tablets would feature the schoolbooks which the schoolchildren needed. The tablets would also include a whole library of other books related to the curriculum and literacy development.

The tablets would be given to all children in state, church and private schools, Dr Gonzi said.

It was through education that this country could create work, Dr Gonzi concluded.