The Gospel reading applicable to the 29th Sunday in Ordinary time reiterated the obligation of Roman Catholics to indulge in supporting social justice by paying their dues to the exchequer.

Conceptualising the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, namely, ‘Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s’, the term fiscal morality comes to mind.

In the local context, Lino Spiteri, a previous finance minister and a regular contributor to this newspaper, can be considered as the champion in promulgating the need for and the importance of fiscal morality in Maltese society. The brief period the Labour Party spent in power after its 1996 electoral victory is synonymous with the crusade to indulge Maltese people more in fiscal morality.

Needless to say, Spiteri had a tough nut to crack in fulfilling the electoral promise of removing Value Added Tax (VAT) and replacing it with some other form of indirect taxation.

I say a tough nut to crack because, unfortunately, many equated the removal of VAT with a laissez faire situation – they thought their fiscal obligations would disappear into thin air.

On the contrary, in a legal notice published on December 3, 1996, Spiteri had not only defined fiscal morality but made it very clear that all the provisions of the then VAT legislation would remain effective until such time that a new legislation is installed.

Without mincing his words Spiteri was adamant in emphasising in that same press release that casting doubts on the observance of fiscal morality under all prevailing and future legislations would be tantamount to social irresponsibility. Have matters changed since 1996?

Even though VAT was re-introduced in 1998, independent studies reveal that the situation has not changed for the better.

According to a study called ‘The Shadow Economy in Europe 2013’, commissioned by VISA and written by international consultancy firm AT Kearney, Malta still features on the high side among its fellow EU member states.

The metric of roughly 25 per cent of GDP is the same as that quoted in a study carried out in the late 1980s by my fellow academic Lino Briguglio, who like Spiteri is an economist.

Possibly the ratio on its own does not spell out the magnitude of the problem but when the ratio is translated into the absolute figure of €1.7 billion, Maltese citizens should have second thoughts.

The answer is education. There needs to be a change in mentality

So what can we do more to curb tax evasion or in other words improve the fiscal morality of our nation? In my humble professional opinion the answer is education. There needs to be a change in mentality, a change in culture and the only way to achieve that is through improving the moral upbringing of our younger generation. All those who like me are in some way or another involved in the educational process of our younger generation should engage in promulgating a better attitude towards fiscal morality. Without any inhibitions and without generalising.

I also say to members of the ecclesiastical community that the buck does not stop with the deliverance of a decent homily from the pulpit but that they too should put into practice the words of the Gospel I refer to at the beginning of this article.

Moreover, our governments, whosoever they may be, have to ensure that taxes collected are spent correctly and that all along there should be full and transparent accountability.

Unspeakable occurrences such as the oil procurement scandal, in which public officials betrayed public trust, are only instances that send incorrect messages to the public to forget about fiscal morality and just carry on dodging the government as we have been used to for years.

I just hope that the situation will change as we progress in our journey as full members of the European Union.

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