The Chamber of Commerce this morning renewed its call for the government to restore the Permanent Residence Scheme, which was abruptly discontinued at the end of last December.

Ian Casolani, chairman of the chamber's real estate section, said the scheme had been suspended without consultation and there was no word when and how it would be reactivated.

He acknowledged that there were loopholes in the scheme which needed tweaking, and said the Chamber had made its own proposals. However, he said, he could not understand why the government was continuing to procrastinate.

Under the scheme, people who bought property here and are registered as permanent residents enjoy many benefits normally given to the Maltese.

Mr Casolani said the Chamber had proposed that the minimum rental fee for people in the scheme should be raised from the current €4,000 to between €10.000 and €12,000 per year. The Chamber also agreed that the current minimum property purchase price of €60,000 was far too low, but it disagreed that it should be raised to €500,000 as some had indicated. That, Mr Casolani said, would be excessive.

He said the scheme needed to be reactivated because of its benefits to the economy, particularly those involved in real estate. Permanent residents, he said, put a lot of money in the economy.

He said that the only abuse which the Chamber had been informed about was about at EU national who had abusively claimed healthcare.