As Budget day looms, some reflection on what one should expect would seem timely from the point of view of a company synonymous with Maltese-led investment in the manufacturing industry.

With the risk of sounding overly simplistic, one should expect a Budget that is not ‘just’ a collection of numbers, but one that also sets out Malta’s economic strategy together with the tactical measures (and structures) necessary to support that economic direction.

In any business, budgetary preparations are incomplete unless the numbers being presented form an integral part of a wider business plan.

Likewise, apart from our financial objectives, we should also be setting out the vision and strategy to attain our economic objectives.

Over the years, we have seen significant changes in the way our market functions.

Even the thought of protectionist policies and procedures are remnants of the past and today we are accustomed to a liberalised and competitive environment. While this is certainly a good thing, it is subject to the market being fairly regulated and enforced.

Economic activity should not be hindered by any unnecessary form of over or under-regulation.

We should all stand for minimal administrative bureaucracy – or better regulation – wherever market regulation is required, but no more, otherwise leaving market forces to take their natural course.

As part of the single European market, we have for over a decade moved away from (intra-EU) border controls towards self-declarations.

Though free movement of goods is essentially positive, it has given rise to the need for more effective market surveillance to ensure that businesses are operating on a level playing field.

With fiscal policy over recent years shifting from direct to indirect forms of taxation, the need for proper enforcement and market surveillance structures bec­omes ever more pressing.

The shift is positive, incentivising work and investment, but it is more prone to evasion.

Therefore, the authorities need to ensure that all business activity competes on an equal footing.

In the face of revenue shortfalls, governments have often resorted to the convenient route of imposing higher rates of taxation on the tax-compliant citizen or business, unjustly asking them to make good for the tax that others have managed to evade.

All businesses should expect to operate within a fair and competitive environment in which fiscal and regulatory compliance is equitably applied and enforced. We certainly should not render fiscal evasion and non-compliance with regulatory obligations as a means to achieve some form of unfair competitive advantage.

The authorities need to ensure that all business activity competes on an equal footing

There is merit in calling on the government to bring about adequate and properly functioning market surveillance. This is a point that has repeatedly been raised, yet governments have soft pedalled on this matter for far too long now.

A number of Budget speeches in the past have declared the intention to consolidate departments responsible for inland revenue, VAT, customs and tax compliance.

Clarity on the government’s intentions here is overdue.

Last year’s Budget speech spoke about the launch of a campaign against fiscal evasion and, also within the context of ensuring a level playing field in business, about the government’s intention to establish an online system to facilitate the reporting of unfair competition.

We are still waiting for visibility of this campaign and knowledge of this online system.

Whether we are in business or part of wider society, it is in our general interest to ensure that private enterprise operates within a free and fair competitive environment, where the necessary regulatory and fiscal policies are equitably enforced without penalising law-abiding businesses.

We must continue to build the necessary foundations for a thriving economy through the stimulation of private enterprise and ensure that the Budget does not contain any measures counterproductive to the competitiveness of business.

We must seek ways to encourage growth within the scope of an economic vision and strategic direction that is supported, wherever necessary, by better organised structures and regulation.

Every Budget has different financial and economic circumstances to deal with.

Nevertheless, we must also keep sight of the bigger picture: it is not public expenditure that leads to greater prosperity, it is private enterprise.

It is no use having good intentions about wealth distribution unless one also pursues policies that create wealth.

There is little doubt that a vibrant and active economy led by the private sector is what drives that needed wealth.

Norman Aquilina is group chief executive of the Farsons Group.

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