The Budget does not address the people’s everyday concerns, Simon Busuttil said in an initial reaction to the Budget this evening.
“We expected much better from the government, given there is no international economic turmoil and given how those at the centre of power are getting rich,” the Opposition leader said.
One of the major talking points in the country was the traffic problem, he said, and yet the Budget did not offer any solutions or ideas. The government had only announced a public consultation.
The government had not even had the humility to accept a suggestion he had made for the State to provide free school transport for children in independent and Church schools, as it did for those in government schools.
To add insult to injury, despite international oil prices having gone down drastically more than a year ago, the government had postponed a minor drop in fuel prices to January. Yet, new taxes and duties would come into force immediately. The government was saying it wanted stability in pricing, but the only stability motorists were seeing was in high prices, Dr Busuttil.
To reduce the petrol price by 3c and diesel by 4c was far too little and ridiculous, he said. Fuel prices would remain among the highest in Europe, particularly in the case of diesel.
The government, he added, had ignored calls from a number of private sector organisations to reduce power tariffs, even though power generation was considerably cheaper than the past.
Dr Busuttil said the income tax cuts announced by the government today were ridiculous since they amounted to savings of between €2 and €4 a week. The allowances to low income families and the €1.75 cost of living increase were also far too low.
Dr Busuttil said the improvements to pensions would not lift many pensioners off the poverty lane. Furthermore, the workers would need to pay social security contributions for another year to be eligible for a pension.
The government had also said it would pay half the minimum wage of carers who employed a carer at home, Dr Busuttil said. While this was a good measure, he asked what would happen to those elderly people who could not afford to employ a carer.
Turning to financial matters, Dr Busuttil said recurrent spending had gone up astronomically, with a €30 million increase over projections.
“The government is spending more on itself and those close to it, but little for the ordinary people,” he said.
The government, he added, was reducing capital expenditure by €25 million, despite having promised to boost infrastructure.
On the Gozo tunnel project, Dr Busuttil said the PN agreed with it because it was the former government which proposed it. The present government wasted two years by having considered a bridge, but the proposal had now been dropped and it was back to square one.
Dr Busuttil said the government had found no new sectors for economic growth.
He questioned why the government felt the need to tax tourists when the economy was doing well. He asked whether the Maltese who went to Gozo and stayed at hotels there would also be charged this tax.
Concluding, he said the Budget would not make a difference for many people. Wealth would not be distributed in a fair manner.
"There is little for you, and a lot for themselves," he charged.
Asked on the three best points he could pinpoint in the Budget, Dr Busuttil listed the resumption of the tax reduction for first time house buyers, the reduction of VAT on sports activities and the continuation of childcare services, which was also something found in the PN electoral programme.