Labour leader Joseph Muscat this evening underlined the need for change in the country, saying the costings presented by the PN yesterday would mean a 6% increase in the tax burden by 2017.

Dr Muscat hit out at the government's economic projections, saying no one was believing them - including the EU. Neither was the government being believed in the way it was claiming it would eliminate the budget deficit, given that budget targets were missed year after year. How could this government be believed when it was responsible for 40% of the national debt run up since independence?

What the PN’s costings and projections showed, Dr Muscat said, was that the people would have a heavier the tax burden by the end of the next legislature.

The tax ratio - the ratio between tax revenue and the Gross Domestic Product, would rise to 37.5 per cent in 2017 according to the projections, Dr Muscat noted. For every €100 in tax paid today, the people would be paying €106 by the end of the next legislature.

“These figures can be easily verified in the costings, which the PN released in a rush with half-baked numbers,” Dr Muscat said.

There were two choices with the Nationalist Party’s proposals – that the country’s debt increased or the taxes increased, he added.

The Labour leader also said that while promising to introduce a cheaper night tariff for electricity, a PN government would raise tariffs for day use.

PN REACTION

In a reaction, the PN said Dr Muscat was not credible when he spoke on economic projections.  This was the same person who had said that EU membership and euro adoption would drive Malta into a wall, yet the country now had one of the lowest unemployment rates in the EU and finances were sound. 

What was certain, the PN said, was that a future PN government would not burden the people with a €600m power station which the country did not need and which would push up electricity tariffs. 

It would be better, the PN said, if the PL was to publish its electoral programme.