The government’s lethargy to remove the car registration tax is destroying the car sale business due to lack of orders, the Labour Party’s spokesman for economy and the self-employed, Gavin Gulia, said.

He said that this was because consumers were waiting for the current system to be changed. This, Dr Gulia said, was confirmed by the Association of Car Importer Malta.

He said that the government had announced it would change the current system in the coming budget but businesses could not take any more delays and expected to be given detailed information on the new system immediately.

While the government said that studies had to be held before a new system was introduced, it did not hold any studies before increasing the surcharge to 95 per cent on small businesses, most of them family run, Dr Gulia pointed out.