The Labour Party was building on proposals already made by the Government and taking ownership of the ideas, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech charged yesterday.

He referred to the PL’s electoral proposal to introduce a final withholding tax of 15 per cent on rental income to encourage people who have vacant property to offer them for rent.

Mr Fenech said that in its Budget 2013 proposals, the Government had merged this incentive with the renovation of property, especially in urban conservation areas.

The scheme consisted of a final withholding tax of 10 per cent of income from rent for residential property and 15 per cent for commercial premises.

“Again the PL is copying. They are building on the schemes already proposed by the Government. This just goes to show that the Opposition has nothing new to offer,” he said during a tour of Milano Due hotel, in Sliema.

Answering questions from journalists, he referred to the PL’s proposal to revise the permanent residency scheme that gave foreigners who bought property in Malta access to certain rights, including free medical treatment.

The Nationalist Government, he said, had suspended that scheme at the beginning of 2011 because it was being abused.

The scheme was then replaced by one that aimed to attract to Malta high net worth individuals who could contribute to the local economy.

The three-star Milano Due has undergone extensive refurbishment that included the installation of energy efficient systems, hotel general manager Franklin Pulis said. As a result, the hotel had seen its energy bills slashed by more than half.

It also benefitted from a Malta Enterprise scheme that subsided part of the interest it paid on the €500,000 loan taken to undergo the refurbishment.

Tourism Minister Mario de Marco said the best way for the country to address the energy challenge was by helping the private sector opt for alternative energy and by investing to be more efficient in terms of consumption.

Dr de Marco said it was no coincidence Malta’s tourism sector had done so well, despite the global economic crisis.

Four of the five past years had been record years, with arrivals peaking at 1,443,762 in 2012 – an increase of 200,000 arrivals when compared with 2007, itself a record year, he said.