Finance Minister Edward Scicluna yesterday questioned the fairness of the Panama Papers leaks, saying only those who used certain financial practitioners were being named by the media.
He said that while such leaks can be “fun for a while” they are ultimately damaging to society.
“Who decides what to leak on whom? That is why we want tax registers on companies to be known to tax authorities; it would be unfair to give them out to the media. One needs moderation here,” Prof. Scicluna said while addressing a conference organised by Finance Malta.
A considerable amount of information about the secretive offshore structure held by Minister Konrad Mizzi and the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, Keith Schembri, were made known thanks to the leaks.
Both Dr Mizzi and Mr Schembri have resisted multiple calls for their resignations. The pair deny any wrongdoing.
The Panama Papers are made up of 11.5 million financial and legal records from the Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca.
On the local economy, Prof. Scicluna warned that economic booms contained the seeds of their own destruction, and stressedthat none of Malta’s economic sectors should be allowed to overheat and reach overcapacity.
He said that Malta was in a very fortunate position, with strong economic growth compared to other EU countries. He explained that banks were still suffering from the fallout of the financial crisis, which led to a regulatory “knee-jerk reaction” and an environment which made it very difficult for banks to open accounts and give out loans, at a time when small companies needed credit.
Prof. Scicluna said Malta’s healthy economic growth needed to be managed in order to stop it developing into an unsustainable boom.
He warned against the “supermarket” mentality in the construction industry, whereby developers try to compete with large-scale projects irrespective of whether there was demand for them.
The finance minister said there was a lack of information when it came to high-rise buildings, which is where the Planning Authority should come into the picture.