What irked me most during the Budget speech was when Tonio Fenech mentioned the amnesty to defaulters on income tax and VAT payments.

At that moment I relived the time when, in 2004, the same Mr Fenech, then parliamentary secretary at the Ministry of Finance, refused ex-Ombusman Joseph Sammut’s “recommendation” to refund to me the “additional tax” and “interests” that I was unjustly made to pay to the Inland Revenue Department.

And, yet, today, Mr Fenech and the Prime Minister are always so ready to give amnesties to those who do not pay their dues according to law. And they had no Ombudsman “recommendation” to justify the waiving of such “penalties and interest”. I take this opportunity to salute the former Ombudsman, a true gentleman who did honour to the high position he occupied.

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