The Budget was replete with taxes, from the 'womb to the tomb,'  PN Deputy Leader Beppe Fenech Adami said yesterday as parliament continued to debate the Budget Measures Implementation Bill.

The budget, he said, raised taxes and tariffs and introduced other new costs, he said. It introduced taxes on services which were widely used, such as mobile telephony.

Furthermore this government was burdening industries which were doing well, but which still required support, such as the introduction of a tax on wine which hit that developing sector, and on the food used by fish farms. Vehicle owners would have to pay an extra €12 or €14 per tyre because of the introduction of a new tax.

Dr Fenech Adami said previous socialist governments took pride of providing for the citizen “from the womb to the tomb”. The Muscat government was true to its word – increase fees for birth and death certificates – and had also gone beyond by introducing a new tax for the transportation of the human remains from one tomb to another.

A simplification measure which made little sense was the different tariffs for renewal of passports: those whose passport expired between April and August would pay €30 more than those who held a passport expiring during the rest of the year.

In the property sector, estate agents and the Chamber of Commerce had said the changes on the final withholding tax would set back the property market.