Opposition finance spokesman Charles Mangion said this afternoon that Malta's bigger-than-expected deficit at the end of last year reflected the government's optimistic revenue projections in the Budget, just one month before the end of the year.

Dr Mangion was speaking at a press conference after the NSO last week said that Malta ended the year with a deficit of €297 million - €40 million more than projected in the Budget speech.

Dr Mangion observed that in the Budget, the government had said that Malta would end the year with revenue of €813 million from income tax, but revenue from this source was actually €739 million.

The same held true for social security contributions. Government had projected revenue of €536 million but actual revenue was €526 million.

Dr Mangion said the confusion in these figures made him wonder whether the finance minister knew what he was doing.

Such a departure from the projected deficit had come about even though the government had spent €64 million less on energy subsidies and capital expenditure was also down sharply, Dr Mangion said.

He said that the government deficit would still end up being acceptable to the EU because the commission also included revenue between January and February, during which time the government had extraordinary revenue of €30 million from the tax penalties amnesty scheme.

Dr Mangion also pointed out that Malta now had a debt which was approaching €4 billion - and this excluded the debts of major corporations such as Enemalta and Transport Malta which were considered separately.