While welcoming the decrease in the government's deficit in the first quarter this year, the Opposition this afternoon called on the government to ensure that it was being reduced in a sustainable manner.
Finance shadow minister Mario de Marco said revenue from income tax in the first quarter went down by €12.4 million.
On the other hand, revenue from indirect taxation went up by €28 million, in part because of the additional taxes introduced by the government in the last budget and also because of the government's decision not to lower the price of petrol and diesel despite the drop in the international price of oil.
He said the government should ensure that this shift was not causing undue burden on the lower income earners of society who might end up paying more taxes despite lower income.
Dr de Marco noted that expenditure on government salaries and wages increased by €10 million during the first quarter largely due to the increase in the government head count by over 2,000 persons.
Conversely expenditure on social security and medicines went down by €9.4 million and €3 million respectively.
“While favouring any initiative aimed at curbing abuse of the welfare system, the Opposition calls on government to ensure that these reductions are not placing undue hardship on the most vulnerable members of our society,” he said.
He added that the Opposition hoped that that the savings made through curbing of abuse were not being channelled towards non-productive salaries and jobs in the public sector.
“If this is the case then government is substituting private abuse with public abuse.”
The Opposition noted that government spend on acquisition of property went up by €7.1 million.
Dr de Marco called on the government to explain whether this increase included the €4.2 million spent on buying out the operators of Cafe Premier. It would be sad and ironic that while government decreased the spend on medicinals it found money to bail out a commercial operator in a deal that was slammed by the auditor general as an example of poor governance, he said.
Dr de Marco also noted that the national debt increased by a €130 million when compared to the same period last year. But the government did not seem to be concerned because of a better debt to GDP ratio.
“This lack of concern on the part of government is not shared by the Opposition which sees this increase in debt as an added weight which is not being counter balanced by improvements in infrastructure.”
The government, he said, should explain these issues and assure the public that the improvement seen in finances was sustainable and driven by real improvements in the country's competitiveness and economic standing and not by one-off gains and unproductive expenditure.