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Farmers will not have to pay income tax under a new Labour government, JosephMuscat said, as he pledged to embark on a €22 million investment project to filter wastewater to be used for agricultural purposes.
Addressing a news conference in Buskett this morning, Dr Muscat said Labour could have made a lot of promises to the sector. This was what the Opposition was doing but its proposals could not be implemented and would lead to a lot of EU infringements.
What Labour was proposing was sustainable and EU compliant, he said.
He said that farmers dependence on the water table was proving to be problematic as overuse was leading this to become salty.
Through investment at the plants at taċ-Ċumnija in Mellieħa, ta’ Barkat and in Gozo, treated waste water would be filtered thrice reducing the need for borehole water extraction.
An additional seven billion litres of filtered water would be produced and farmers would not be charged for it. This, Dr Muscat said, was an investment for the future and the difference it would make would be seen in the next generation.
Dr Muscat said that, in Singapore, this water was being given to homes for their consumption. Malta would initially use this water for industry and agriculture.
It would be taken to reservoirs, micro-piped and distributed to farmers free of charge.
If the government managed to convince farmers to use this water, it would lead to a culture change after three to four seasons as they would realise it was more worthwhile to use this water.
The government would also use the additional water produced and which farmers did not need to create a water table replenishment system to prevent water evaporation and keep salt water from contaminating the water table.
A new Labour government would also reform the way title on agricultural land was passed on enabling farmers to benefit more from EU funds.
Dr Muscat said that the way Labour would reform the sector would facilitate the procedure for enabling the possibility of the transfer of joint office land from one farmer to another.
The government, he said, had also brought down the amount charged for land where farms were being built from €3,000 to €2,000 per tomna.
Turning to fishermen, he said the sector was overregulated by the EU and there were tensions between issues of conservation of species and feasibility.
The Maltese government managed to increase the tuna quotas for Malta. However, countries would soon have to face swordfish quotas. Malta had been wanting to introduced swordfish quotas as from this year but decided against to see what the social and economic impact on fishermen would be.
There were decisions the government had to take. There would be no quotas this year and the government would embark on discussions to ensure these quotas would be just for fishermen.