Finance Minister Edward Scicluna last night defended the Budget he presented in Parliament on Monday, saying that no new projects had been announced because it was the same Budget proposed by the Opposition in November.
It had to provide adequate funds to cover expenses, including recent collective agreements
New projects under this Government would be announced in the 2014 edition following consultations with the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development, civil society and economic operators in the coming months.
Prof. Scicluna said he had to ensure that the Budget provided adequate funds to cover expenses including recent collective agreements.
He had expected former Finance Minister Tonio Fenech would justify his performance but never his predecessor’s claim that the figures had been revised to show a bigger deficit.
The figures related to NSO statistics published last November but the former minister remained in denial. Government accounts were not revised; it was only the estimates for the Budget that were revised.
The minister said he was shocked by Mr Fenech’s advice that as minister he should not rely on what technocrats told him.
He asked whether Mr Fenech was referring to technical experts at the Treasury, at the NSO or at the Economic Performance Unit. These were the same technical experts who had worked on the Budget presented in November.
He did not make calls to any Treasury or other government officials but left them to work on their own.
The European Parliament had approved sanctions against governments that tried to juggle financial figures.
The Government, he said, aimed to lower the deficit to below the three per cent mark. Malta should have convincing arguments when it held discussions with the European Commission and international credit agencies and it was determined to reach its aims for economic growth.
Winding up the debate, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said the European Commission’s analysis of Malta’s banking sector lent more credibility to what had been argued by both the Leader of the Opposition and himself: that local banks were sound and not exposed to any risk.
The report showed that the impressions of a weak local banking sector given by sections of the foreign press were false.
Dr Muscat said the EC report concluded that the risk posed by Maltese banks to domestic financial stability due to the presence of a large financial sector appeared small. This was because of the very limited exposure of the domestic economy to international banks.
The report said that the core domestic banks did not appear to be exposed to the volatility of the international finan-cial markets.
The international banks in Malta were profitable and had a good capital base.
The Prime Minister noted that the EC report claimed the long-term sustainability of public finances was at risk but the risk was reduced when one considered that this debt was mainly based locally.
The report remarked that the Government was guaranteeing large amounts of debt belonging to public corporations.
This was the same analysis made by the finance minister, he said, adding that the Government would address the issue of public debt by making efforts to reduce its rate of acceleration.
The financial estimates for this year were later approved by the whole House.