Updated Monday 8.18am

Finance Minister Edward Scicluna has commented with a touch of humour to a report in yesterday's Sunday Times of Malta that he is the top earning Cabinet member, with an annual income in 2014 of €188,500 and monetary assets worth €815,000.

"Now I know how Bill Gates feels on a morning at breakfast time reading the papers and finds he is the top ....." Prof Scicluna commented on twitter, while linking to the report.

He took the spot from Manuel Mallia, who was the top earner until he resigned as home affairs minister last December.

In 2013, Dr Mallia recorded annual earnings of €227,000 and various holdings worth almost €2.1 million.

In terms of earnings alone, in 2014 Gozo Minister Anton Refalo climbed to second place followed by Deputy Prime Minster Louis Grech.

On the other hand, Education Minister Evarist Bartolo can be considered as the ‘poorest’ Cabinet member with savings totalling a modest €8,000 and no income from properties or investments.

According to the 2014 declaration of assets tabled in Parliament last Wednesday, ministers earn a salary of around €58,800 excluding benefits. Parliamentary secretaries earn slightly less, receiving a gross salary of €4,700 a month.

Though Cabinet members are not permitted to boost their income through private practice, they may have other streams of revenue from return on investments and property dealings.

Prof. Scicluna recorded the highest income with €188,510 mainly due to “unearned” revenue of €121,051 from dividends, interest and pensions. Prof. Scicluna also ranked first among the 23-strong Cabinet when it came to bank deposits and other investments with €815,000 in savings, of which €488,000 were deposits in various bank accounts.

The Gozo Minister, whose declaration two years ago had raised eyebrows, this time around included revenue from various leases of his 24 properties, which brought in revenue of €13,500.

In addition he also received €23,300 as part of the second instalment on the sale of a property, and a further €7,400 from judicial taxes of years gone by. His annual income in 2014 including his wife’s €20,000 salary totalled €122,500 and, at second highest, was over three times what he declared in 2012. 

That year Dr Refalo had declared no income from his properties and just €6,000 from his legal profession, as at the time he could still work as a lawyer being an Opposition MP.

He had also declared having a loan of €830,000, raising further questions on the repayment terms in light of the modest earnings he declared.

Two years down the line his loan has gone down to €781,000 with the Gozo Minister this time around specifying that he was paying monthly instalments of €2,250. As for his bank deposits, these have plummeted drastically from €39,000 in 2012 to €4,000 last year. 

More in The Sunday Times of Malta and the e-paper on timesofmalta.com Premium.

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