Finance Minister Tonio Fenech this morning delivered his winding-up speech at the end of the long debate on the Budget Measures Bill. The crucial vote will be taken tonight and it is expected to be business as usual, with MP Franco Debono having declared last Sunday that he will be backing the government, as he did on the actual Budget vote.

In his address Mr Fenech said an Opposition vote against the Budget Measures Bill would be a vote against various measures such as lower income tax for 55,000 parents, the new allowances for those over 80 and those living in old people's homes, among others.

Through its actions the Opposition would be acting against measures which would put money in the people's pockets, including tax credits to SMEs.

Such measures, Mr Fenech said, were in stark contrast to the situation in other countries, where the arguments were about austerity.

It was little wonder that the IMF had praised the Maltese economy, which was so different to the scaremongering of the Opposition.

Mr Fenech denied that it was the European Commission which had told the government to scale back its spending by €40m. They had been confirmed in reply to a question put to Commissioner Olli Rehn by MEP Edward Scicluna. The scaling back was a government initiative to give itself elbow room and it was a measure praised by the Commission, which considered that the government had taken timely and effective action. And yet, Prof Scicluna had come out with a statement saying that the government had ignored the commission, Mr Fenech said.

Mr Fenech asked if opposition's scaremongering was the harbinger of austerity, if Labour took office.

He denied that the PN government was causing uncertainty for investors. Its track record in creating the right business environment  actually gave certainty. The uncertainty lay in the possibility of Labour being elected, because it had not come up with an economic programme.

The House will tonight also vote on a motion to regulate the operations of Malita plc, the special purpose vehicle which will finance the City Gate project. Dr Debono has not outrightly declared how he will vote, although he is not expected to oppose.

When asked this morning, he told timesofmalta.com that he had not spoken against the actual building of a new parliament building but had said that there is a need for a law on the autonomy of parliament and modernisation of standing orders, because that was what was most important for democracy.

He said that questions on voting intentions should be addressed to other MPs who had spoken against the new parliament project.