The Prime Minister said that a date was set for the signing of the agreement between Enemalta and Shanghai Electric but he would not say when it will be.

Joseph Muscat would only say the date would be announced “shortly”, when asked by Times of Malta for a deadline at the end of the Budget.

The agreement that will see the Chinese firm take a 33 per cent stake in Enemalta and buy the BWSC plant is crucial to government finances because of excise tax arrears that have to be paid.

There was no reference to a timeline in the Finance Minister’s speech.

Dr Muscat was addressing a press conference after a four-hour-long Budget speech for which he apologised.

“The length of time was necessary to explain all the hard work we put into it,” he said with a smile, adding the government was changing the economic structure of the country.

Taking a dig at the Opposition, Dr Muscat insisted the only word that would not be found in the Budget was “bailout”.

He said the economy had grown and the deficit was cut as planned.

Next year would also see good growth and the deficit would be cut further to 1.6 per cent, he added.

Dr Muscat said the Budget had a strong social dimension citing the one-off bonus to compensate for the lower COLA and additional child benefits for low income earners.

He insisted that targeting benefit abuse did not hit the Labour Party’s core vote.

“I disagree with those who argue this way because benefit abuse hits voters with common sense, those who honestly pay their taxes,” Dr Muscat said.