Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said in Parliament this evening that the Budget was a good one for the people, but it was not an honest one.

He also argued that thousands of people would not get a 25% cut in their energy bills next year, despite the government promise.

Speaking in Parliament, Dr Busuttil said the Opposition agreed with many of the Budget measures and it would now insist that they come into force. 

This, he said, was not an honest Budget because it only highlighted the positives. It only told the people what they liked to hear. 

But beyond the propaganda, the billboards and the press conferences, no one knew how this Budget would cost the people.

Once this was a good Budget, that only meant that the government had found a sound economy which enabled it to dish out the measures it had announced. Therefore, the Nationalist Party, surely, deserved some of the credit.

It was good to reduce the top rate of income tax to 29 per cent. But when the PN started this process, Labour voted against it, Dr Busuttil observed.

The incentives for people to go out to work and for pensioners to continue to work were all started by the PN. What Labour had seen as bad had now become good. The prime minister had gone through a conversion.

This, Dr Busuttil, was an election Budget, in this case the European Parliament elections which Labour wanted to win at all costs.

But it was about time that Labour started governing instead of electioneering.

FUNDING THE BUDGET

The obvious questions in the Budget were its cost, and where the money would come from.

The government was projecting economic growth of 1.7 per cent for next year, which would not be enough to pay for this Budget.  With the measures announced in the Budget, the country would be living beyond its means.

Therefore the Finance Minister was imposing more taxes, reducing spending in some important sectors, and borrowing more. This was why this Budget was not honest.

INCREASED TAXATION

The government in this Budget was breaking the Labour Party electoral promise not to increase the tax burden. This Budget would yield €170 million more in tax revenue, or €400 per person in Malta and Gozo.

That included revenue of €72 million in new taxes.

The government was giving the people €25m in power tariff cuts, and taking three times as much.

REDUCED SPENDING

Many important sectors would see lower spending. Among them was, unbelievably, primary health care, where the allocation was down by a half.

The same applied for the strategies for obesity and dementia and rare diseases. Even the blood bank would see its funding halved. All this was shameful.

The Education Budget was rising, but funding for resources and IT would drop.

There would be less funding for persons with disabilities, local councils (down by €500,000) and sport.

INCREASED BORROWING, HIGHER DEBT

Labour used to criticise the former government for its borrowing, but now things had changed. In three years the government was projecting an increase in the debt by €550 million, or €1,300 per person in three years.

It now seemed okay for the government to tax and spend, as long as it won the May election.

And then, the government was saying it would narrow the deficit to 2.7 per cent this year, while the European Commission was saying it would widen to 3.4 per cent. Next year, the government was claiming a deficit of 2.1 and the EU was saying 3.5 per cent, a difference of €100,000.

Dr Busuttil said the government was wrong to argue that the EU had not seen the Budget, because the data was sent to the Commission before the Budget was presented.

GOOD THAT POWER TARIFFS HAVE BEEN REDUCED

It was good that power tariffs were being reduced, Dr Busuttil said. It was a mistake of the PN government in 2009 to have raised the tariffs in the way it did. The tariffs could have been raised gradually over a longer period. 

True there had been attempts to help low income families and those who consumed least, but that was not enough, and the PN paid a political price.

But even here the government was not being honest. It was not true that bills would go down by 25 per cent for everyone. The government said that low consumers would get a 35 per cent cut, but these people already got a 25 per cent cut through the eco-reduction.

And according to the government figures, those who used over 6,000 units would not get a 25 per cent cut, but a 15 per cent cut. These figures involved several thousand people.

And meter rentals would not go down.

All in all, the claim of a 25 per cent cut were not true. The people should keep this year's bills to see next year whether the cut would be by a quarter.

The government was saying the cuts would cost €25m but €21.4 million would be raked in by the government in licensing and petrol increases.

And it was worth pointing out, Dr Busuttil said, that the government was saving €1m a week in oil purchase costs thanks to the new (BWSC) power plant. That meant a saving of €52m a year. So why was the government not giving immediate cuts, and bigger ones?

Next year the interconnector would also come on stream, leading to even more savings.

And what had become of the Libya oil purchase agreement, announced with much fanfare?

€214m FROM THE EU NEXT YEAR

The government had not said how Malta would be eligible for €214m from the EU next year.

Dr Busuttil noted that the government had said it would start VAT refunds on vehicle registration tax next year. The process would take seven years. But then the government would raise vehicle licences, meaning those who had not bought a new car would pay for those who did.

TAX ON SHARES

Dr Busuttil asked the minister to clarify whether the reduction in the top rate of income tax would apply on revenue from shares and dividends.

FIRST TIME BUYERS

It was good, he said, that first time property buyers would get duties waived, but the workings needed to be clarified. Did this only apply for those who made a promise of sale agreement after July this year?

CREATION OF OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALL

Dr Busuttil said he liked the Budget measures to help people into jobs, such as the tapering of unemployment benefits when the unemployed found a job. The measures to encourage women to work were also welcome.

But while encouraging people to go out to work, the Budget was lacking in measures to create new jobs. People needed jobs in order to go out to work.

How many new jobs will be created next year? What new sectors would be developed? How many new jobs would be created in Gozo?

It was worrying that industrial production was declining, Dr Busuttil said. And yet the government was reducing funding by Malta Enterprise - while paying a hefty salary to a minister's wife.

But the funding for hospitality, and parties, for the Economic Affairs Ministry would rise!

The government had not renewed the scheme that encouraged the generation of cleaner fuel. There were no new funds for the new maritime park.

It was good that the PN-introduced micro-invest scheme was being reactivated, after having been stopped by the present government.

HELPING THE VULNERABLE

Dr Busuttil underlined the duty of the state to help those who were most vulnerable. But here too, he said, the Budget was not doing enough. Minister Marie-Louise Coleiro had not come out with a real strategy to eliminate poverty other than a Green Paper which lacked ideas.

The worst off in the Budget were those who earned the least. They would not benefit from a reduction in income tax. In the case of parents they would only get a tax cut of €75 a year, which Konrad Mizzi's wife would earn in 15 minutes.

The people knew how food prices were rising fast, and this affected the poor most since they used a bigger portion of their income on food. This alone eliminated the cut in the power tariffs.

HOSPITAL PROBLEMS REMAIN UNSOLVED

Dr Busuttil said that over the years, the PN government was constantly attacked for hospital overcrowding and medicines out of stock. Yet those problems got worse under the present government and the solution the Budget gave was only a White Paper. What had happened to the roadmap?

Labour had promised to deliver medicines to people's homes, but it was unable to even get them to pharmacies. The missing medicines included those for hypertension, heart and eye conditions and cholesterol.

CHARGE FOR IVF SERVICES

And in a blatant breach of electoral promises, the Labour government would introduce a charge for a medical service - the IVF service. This breached the Labour promise that the IVF service would be free of charge, and, indeed, that all medical services would be free of charge.

Labour had also promised homes for persons with disabilities, but now the people only heard in the Budget that the government was launching 'studies' on this project. This showed, Dr Busuttil said, how Labour had even used people with disabilities and their parents for electoral purposes, without actually preparing anything.

THE ENVIRONMENT, THE SOUTH AND GOZO FORGOTTEN

Dr Busuttil hit out at the government for ignoring the environment, issuing development permits haphazardly and turning Mepa into a puppet of the prime minister. Mepa was now even laying the ground to allow development in what were designated as Outside Development Zones. In this sector, Labour had become a hostage of its promises and the environment would pay the price.

Dr Busuttil criticised the government for forgetting the south of Malta, where it got a huge majority of votes. It was a 'betrayal' he said, that after saying that the power station was a cancer factory, the government was continuing to use heavy fuel oil despite promising to use diesel immediately. What would the prime minister tell that family of a cancer patient, used in the electoral campaign?

And the government had also deceived the people of Gozo, with no funds for new capital projects including the promised new court house and home for the elderly.

MISSING: MALTA TAGHNA LKOLL

Dr Busuttil noted that the phrase Malta Taghna Lkoll was missing from the Budget speech. And with good reason, since this government was bent on dishing out to its own supporters. A Parliamentary Secretary was still carrying out operations in breach of the code of ethics. Ministers had made false declarations of assets, a minister's wife was given a job for €13,000 a month, and many Labour MPs had been given other posts with Silvio Schembri earning €65,000.

Dr Busuttil criticised promotions in the army and the fact that the government had engaged as a consultant a person who was black listed by the World Bank.

Nor was it serious, he said, that the Police Commissioner arrested a person for four hours without a reasonable suspicion of a crime. The commissioner then described  the Magistrates Court as the lowest of the lowest courts. The Speaker (Anglu Farrugia) knew what happened in the past when somebody made a comment on the judiciary, Dr Busuttil said.

Continuing, he said that it was not seriousness that the government intervened and stopped the course of justice in the case of John Dalli.

It was not seriousness that a Gozo Channel ferry was called back because a minister missed it. Or than in Court the Labour government surrendered a case against the Labour Party in a blatant conflict of interest. Did the government have no shame?

BIGGEST BETRAYAL - THE CITIZENSHIP SCHEME

But the biggest betrayal was how the citizenship of Malta Taghna Lkoll was now being put for sale (cheers and jeers). As Mario de Marco had said, this amounted to prostituting the country. The prime minister could not draw the line between morality and immorality.

The prime minister first said Malta would earn €30m, then €15m and then minister Manuel Mallia said revenue would be about €1 billion. But the risks to Malta's reputation were much higher. Malta's financial services would suffer greatly if Malta lost its reputation of seriousness and started being viewed as a tax haven.

It was a shame that this was happening as Malta was about to start the 50th year of Independence, the 40h year of the Republic and the 10th year of EU membership. This law was an insult to George Borg Olivier, Dom Mintoff and Eddie Fenech Adami, who had worked so hard for those historical milestones.

The Opposition had done what it could to at least link citizenship to residence for five years and with serious investment, but the government had continued to steam roll. There was no White Paper in this case.

Dr Busuttil said he was renewing his appeal for the government to think again before tomorrow's final vote. He was appealing for a new, transparent, scheme  worked out by consensus. He was appealing to the Labour MPs to heed their conscience and defend the identity of their country, without fearing the prime minister.

It was worth recalling, he said, how, when in the past the people's identity was threatened, the people rose with the unforgettable words : "u l-kotra qamet f'daqqa u ghajtet, jien Maltija, miskin min ikasbarni, miskin min jidhak bija!"

Dr Busuttil reiterated his promise that a PN government would withdraw citizenship granted under this scheme. It was considering participation in the Monitoring Committee and would  use that to publish the names of those granted citizenship.

This, Dr Busuttil said, would not be in breach of the Constitution, as the government was claiming.

Concluding, Dr Busuttil urged the government to stop electioneering and start to govern seriously. What the government needed was a prime minister who was a statesman, not a salesman, he said.

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