It was a disappointing Budget that did not address the people’s main concerns, Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said yesterday.
In his initial reaction, Dr Busuttil said he expected a much better Budget at a time when there was no international economic turmoil. Instead, the Budget showed that those closest to the government circles were getting rich while those who were not got peanuts.
He welcomed the government’s decision to reduce value added tax on sport, continue offering free childcare and extend the tax incentive scheme for first-time buyers.
These, he said, were the Budget’s best three proposals.
Traffic, he said, was the people’s main concern but the issue was not properly addressed in the Budget, with the government failing to come up with short- or long-term plans to solve or alleviate the situation that was causing chaos on Malta’s roads.
The Budget did not offer any solutions or ideas, except for the announcement of a public consultation to hear people’s ideas.
Reducing the price of petrol by3c and diesel by4c per litre was far too little and was almost ridiculous
The government, he said, did not have the humility to accept a suggestion that he had made for the State to provide free school transport for children in independent and Church schools.
To make matters worse, the government had postponed a minimal drop in fuel prices to January despite international oil prices having gone down drastically more than a year ago.
“Reducing the price of petrol by 3c and diesel by 4c per litre was far too little and was almost ridiculous,” Dr Busuttil said, adding that even with such prices, Malta still had the most expensive fuel prices in Europe.
He said the Opposition was disappointed that the government had ignored calls by various social partners for a further reduction in utility tariffs despite lower power generation costs.
He said the proposed income tax cuts were also “ridiculous” because they amounted to measly savings of between €2 and €4 a week. The €1.75 cost of living increase was not even enough to cover a bus fare, he said.
He questioned why the government would be taxing tourists and asked whether internal tourism would also be affected by the levy.
On the Gozo tunnel project, Dr Busuttil said the government had wasted three years studying the bridge and had now gone to the original tunnel proposal and so it was “back to square one”.
Asked to give a rating to the Budget, Dr Busuttil said he would leave it to the people to reach such a conclusion. He, insisted, however, that he was “very disappointed”.