Malta’s budget deficit will not increase to cover the planned energy price reductions, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said this morning.

Addressing a Q &A session at the Chamber of Commerce, Dr Muscat said the energy plan would be self-financing and was totally on track to reduce energy prices for businesses by March. He also reiterated that no taxes would be increased for the purpose.

The plan, he said, was aimed at putting business leaders’ mind at rest that prices would not fluctuate in the energy sector.

“In less than six months we will reduce one of the main overheads for businesses while maintaining our commitment to the Maastricht criteria... We are not blaming the EU for a tighter grip. We are finding solutions,” he said.

Alluding to the upcoming budget, Dr Muscat said there would be a lot of emphasis on encouraging more public private partnerships.

The government was finalising an unprecedented list of projects that would invite the private sector to invest in PPPs.

“There has already been success in this field in roundabouts but we cannot stop at flowers. We are going for a culture change that will bolster this sector.”

Dr Muscat said he wanted to introduce a system of social welfare that helped those who needed to get on their feet but clamped down on “thieves who are abusing the welfare system”. He said he had a strong sense of resolve and belief that the country would gain savings from clamping down on those who were abusing welfare.

Dr Muscat also spoke on traffic and said that if it was true that, as someone once said, this was just a perception, he must be getting stuck in a lot of perceptions.

Infrastructural projects such as those underway on the Coast Road and the Addolorata junction would help ease traffic flow.

Some, he said, might argue that increased development was adding to the country’s traffic problems and many called for traffic impact assessment to be done on new projects.

Dr Muscat said that what he wanted was solutions and not to be told that there was a problem.

 “I can give you the traffic assessment for a new project. It is going to create traffic. God forbid we are signing on a project that is not going to attract people. We need to find ways to solve the traffic flow problem. I believe that a number of national road infrastructural projects we have embarked upon will help resolve much of the traffic problems,” he said.

Dr Muscat also said that the government was looking at other ways to ease traffic. These included the introduction of parking hubs and increased emphases on modes of transports that were still underutilised.

On pensions, the Prime Minister said that the economy and the workforce, could not afford a voluntary pensions system. He said he wanted to persuade people to enter pension plans that suited them.

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