The pension reform measures in the new Budget were not enough to address the problem of elderly people living at risk of poverty, PN deputy leader Mario de Marco said yesterday.
Speaking during an interview on Radio 101, he said the increase in minimum pensions was positive but insufficient in the context of nearly a quarter of all Maltese living at risk of poverty.
“The private pension scheme did not work; the government knows it did not work but it still did nothing to make the scheme more attractive,” he said.
“The government also ignored our calls to start a discussion on second pillar pensions.”
In a wide-ranging criticism of the Budget, Dr de Marco insisted the government still did not have a strategic vision for the future of the economy. Malta’s economic success, he said, had always been built on identifying and nurturing new niches – such as tourism, aviation maintenance and electronic gaming – which the government had so far failed to do.
People continue to pay for the government’s inefficiency
“I would have liked to see more measures to strengthen the competitiveness of our industry. Instead, the government has given us the weak excuse of fuel prices being kept high to reduce traffic.
“All that’s going to happen is that the people continue to pay for the government’s inefficiency while industry finds it even more difficult to maintain competitiveness in relation to other countries,” Dr de Marco warned.
He criticised the plan to replace the eco-tax on certain products with an excise tax, which he described as a further blow to competitiveness.
“The Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises – GRTU itself is saying the scheme doesn’t make sense and should be suspended immediately. If the government is truly ‘one that listens’, it would not go ahead with the measure.”
Dr de Marco added that Opposition leader Simon Busuttil would be using his speech in Parliament this evening not just to analyse the Budget but to present an alternative vision for the country.
This would follow the Opposition’s unprecedented step of publishing its own pre-Budget document.
He took a shot at the government’s error in posting on the Finance Ministry website a working document containing measures that were omitted from the official Budget speech.
“This shows the extent of the government’s professionalism,” Dr de Marco said.
“It also shows that when the government had to make a choice, it chose to deprive the people of measures that would have benefited them.”