Budget 2015 ran to 139 pages. The Finance Minister took nearly four hours to read it out. There were hundreds of measures, some immediate, some planned.

And yet commentators are still trying to categorise the Budget as being good or bad, black or white, pro or anti-business.

Surely that is too simplistic?

That is not to say that there has not been an overall shift in focus: recent Budgets had their main measures aimed at the middle class and increasing their disposable income, and at facilitating job creation. These ranged from reducing the income tax bands and utility rates to establishing a flat tax rate for rental income.

This Budget, and to an extent its predecessor, had a definite slant towards the lower income segments of the population. But it also has a plethora of other measures which are aimed at business. Some of them have been highlighted in the Business Observer’s Industry Focus (see pages 8 and 9).

These are indicative of this Budget’s approach to business, which has admittedly been overshadowed by youths who do not want to work and single mothers trapped in a poverty cycle.

There were no grand measures, rather dozens of small ones, none of which require enormous amounts of money or drastic changes to legislation. However, their impact will be positive, often removing stumbling blocks which add unnecessary frustrations. They may not on their own make a difference to investment measures affecting decisions but when taken as a whole, they are all about listening to what stakeholders want.

Perhaps the best example of this was the decision to allow casinos on board cruise ships to open in port. Doing so will be a real carrot for cruise companies who weigh up the cost of moving from port to port against staying here overnight. The spin-offs for Malta could be huge: even if it does not attract new calls, this measure could mean existing calls become overnight stays. And adding an incentive to stay in Gozo, through waiving the licence, is another measure which will cost the government little in reality but act as an incentive for companies to schedule a second night on the islands.

The government also bit the bullet and will dismantle eco-contribution, a made-in-Malta tax, which did little to get the polluter to pay. All it did was put local retailers at a disadvantage against online vendors and at the mercy of imports from the continent which bypassed the authorities.

We need a lot more of this. We need to look at measures that are in place, ask why they were put there and whether they were working as planned. And if not, then we need to stop dragging our feet and change them or abolish them. We cannot afford to get sentimental about laws and regulations and procedures. We cannot get too enamoured of the income from measures without also taking into account the burden they put on businesses, the drag on our competitiveness, the opportunity costs.

Newton’s third law says that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. There is also Merton’s law of unintended consequences. Reducing the VAT for e-books will hurt booksellers. Creating incentives for single mothers could encourage teenagers not to get married. Shortening waiting times for operations will strangle private hospitals.

The proof of any budget will only be felt over time. Some of the measures will work as planned; others will merely transfer problems further down the line. The important thing is to approach each one with caution – and the humility to admit it when they don’t work out.