What moved the government to shave €40 million off the November-approved Budget was the deteriorating international financial situation that had been rearing its head in the last weeks of 2011, Minister for Fair Competition Jason Azzopardi told Parliament yesterday.

He was replying to a long series of supplementary questions by Opposition Whip Joe Mizzi and MP Alfred Sant. The supplementary questions and the minister’s replies, with Finance Minister Tonio Fenech bringing up the rear, took up all 30 minutes of question time.

In the end Minister Azzopardi acceded to Dr Sant’s repeated requests that he table the revised line items of his ministry so that a comparison with the original could be made. He also said he would table a list of international media articles to deny Dr Sant’s contentions that there had been no real “cataclysm” in the final weeks of 2011.

Dr Azzopardi repeatedly said there were no spending cuts contemplated in his ministry’s recurrent expenditures. There would simply be restricted overtime and recruitment.

Minister Fenech held out that Malta’s financial results spoke for themselves: Malta was one of the few EU member states that were not facing procedures for excessive deficit.

The budget review was an annual occurrence that was usually made without any fanfare. Only this time it had been brought forward.

Mr Fenech reiterated that the spending cuts had been decided voluntarily, not imposed by the European Commission. The savings could come in handy in the face of rising oil prices, obviating the need for Enemalta Corporation to raise tariffs.