Labour leader Joseph Muscat said this evening that unless people who paid VAT on their vehicle registration tax were given their money back, the MLP would launch a campaign for that purpose.

Dr Muscat said when speaking in Parliament that the imposition of VAT on registration tax had been declared illegal by the European Court, but the government had not yet said whether people would be refunded. Nor was any mention made in the budget.

Speaking in his reaction to the budget speech, Dr Muscat said the government had made “a mess” of the new vehicle registration tax.

While government income from registration tax would drop by €7.7 million, licences had been revised so that government revenue would actually be €15.5 million. The worst off would be those who could not afford to buy a new car.

And the licence of an eight year old medium sized car would cost as much as a yacht licence, he said.