Sai Mizzi, the Energy Minister's wife, this morning denied that her salary is €13,000 monthly, saying she only gets just over €3,000 per month.

Replying for the first time to questions from the Maltese media after months of speculation, she said she was hurt by such claims and could not understand how anybody believed them.

She also insisted that she was not engaged as the Malta Enterprise representative because she is the minister's wife, but because of her qualifications.

She said she had been working behind the scenes to attract investment of a varied nature from Asia. She had also worked to ease visa procedures between Malta and China.

See the comments she gave Ariadne Massa on video above.

PN STANDS BY CLAIMS

But in a statement, the Nationalist Party said it stood by its information that Ms Mizzi’s financial package, including salary and perks, amounted to €13,000 per month.

"What’s most remarkable is that information on this financial package has been in the public domain since October 2013 and it is only now that this information is being disputed.

"If Ms Mizzi’s position is indeed true, which it is not, she has only her political masters to blame for having regularly refused to publish her contract despite repeated requests by the Nationalist Party and independent media houses, using all means at their disposal, including Parliament and the Freedom of Information Act."

The PN said the government repeatedly refused to publish Ms Mizzi’s earnings paid using taxpayers’ money.

"Taxpayers deserve to be told how much they are paying for Minister Konrad Mizzi’s wife’s prolonged stay in China. Government’s lack of transparency is astonishing and flies in the face of its electoral commitments.

"Today's comments to the press would certainly have been more worthwhile had minister Mizzi’s wife given details of her efforts and achievements since being appointed Malta Enterprise’s Special Envoy for Asia with such an exorbitant financial package," the PN said.