The Chamber of Commerce and Industry said today that it was disappointed that the country has wasted another opportunity to address the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) mechanism.

In a reaction to the Budget, the Chamber said it was not against COLA but the mechanism was out-dated and needed to be fine-tuned in order to ensure that it would complement Malta’s competitiveness position whilst being retained as an instrument to compensate workers for loss of disposable income due to inflation.

The Chamber said the measure to support the training of workers who earn low incomes was very positive as it could increase the skills and profile of people who would be interested but could not afford training in terms of time and money.

On the commitment made in the Budget to ensure fair competition, the Chamber said that although no details were given, the business community looked forward to the setting up of a multi-departmental task-force armed with legal executive powers to ensure the proper curtailment of abuse in the interest of fair competition, the consumer and higher indirect tax revenues for government.

"For far too long the authorities have paid lip service to fair competition and market surveillance. We now expect action to be taken immediately."