Finance Minister Edward Scicluna this afternoon avoided questions on what action was taken by the Inland Revenue Department against the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff and Minister Konrad Mizzi for not having declared their trusts in New Zealand and related Panama based companies.

A year ago, Times of Malta reported that Dr Mizzi still had to pay a fine for breaking income tax laws.

Prof Scicluna said today that he had full confidence in the institutions supervising the banking system and in the chairman of the Malta Financial Services Authority, Joe Bannister. He then abruptly ended his press conference and walked out.

The press conference was about measures, originally announced in the budget, to facilitate the inheritance of family businesses. In his Budget Speech, Prof Scicluna had said that for one year only, the government would be facilitating the transfer of family businesses from parents to their children by reducing the tax on such a transfer to 1.5 per cent from the current five per cent.

In his press conference today, Prof Scicluna also brushed off the latest claims about the Prime Minister’s wife, stating that this was all based on allegations.

He said that he was not aware that the FIAU drew up a report flagging problems with Pilatus bank.

Faced with questions by the media that hee was ‘hiding’ behind institutions like the MFSA and the FIAU which are precluded from divulging any information to the public, ProfScicluna said: “The laws about these institutions were not enacted by me but by the previous government.” 

See also: Serious failures found at Pilatus Bank