The prime minister needs to explain how he spent €11,000 on a Dubai hotel bill in one week last year, the Nationalist Party said today.

A copy of the bill paid by Dr Muscat was published by blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia yesterday.

The Nationalist Party said people were wondering how the prime minister could afford to spend €11,000 on a hotel stay when his annual declared income was €68,000.

This meant that he had spent a fifth of his income just on a week's stay in a hotel, excluding flights and other costs.  

In a reply, the Office of the Prime Minister said that the PN had, for the past year, alleged that somebody else had paid for the holiday by the prime minister and his family in Dubai. But the PN was now admitting that it was actually Dr Muscat who paid the bill, using his own credit card and recorded bank transactions.  

The Office said that Dr Busuttil should be as transparent and publish the 'false invoices' which he had ordered the PN company to issue (to the db Group), in breach of the party financing law.  

Reacting, the PN said there were questions on the source of the funds because the prime minister was living a life style which could not be afforded by his declared income.

"It is difficult to believe that a prime minister who earns some €60,000 per year could spend a substantial part of that amount on a hotel bill for just six days," it said.

It recalled that Dr Muscat took his holiday in the same month when the Panama companies scandal broke, raising questions about what Dr Muscat was doing in Dubai and the source of the money he used to pay his bill.