You win some, you lose some and the budget too had its winners and losers. Cynthia Busuttil takes a look at who stands to gain and who will lose out with the new measures.

Winners

Women
Tax breaks for new mothers and those who return to work after a five-year absence puts them among the winners. Women will also benefit from a national breast screening programme and the breast cancer drug Herceptin free on the national health service.

People with a disability
From next year they will no longer have to pay succession tax when inheriting the residence they live in. The government will also be paying for more facilitators for schoolchildren with special needs.

Host families
Their non-taxable income from rooming foreign students has been raised to €3,500 from €2,330.

Mcast lecturers
More than €13 million will go towards further education of Malta College for Art, Science and Technology tutors.

Environmentalists
With a budget described as green, environmentalists have a lot to be happy about. Apart from various fiscal incentives geared towards increasing the use of alternative energy by both homes and companies, the new car registration tax is based in large part on CO₂ and particulate matter emissions.

First-time home buyers
Buying a first home has become cheaper for those who pass a means test, with the government set to dish out up to 30 per cent of their loan repayments for 10 years.

Motorbike riders
Registration tax on motorbikes with small and medium-sized engines will be slashed by up to 95 per cent.

Commuters
The liberalisation of public transport provision and a new bus fleet by 2010 could, finally, mean an improvement in the service.

Families
The wider tax bands and €4.08 weekly cost-of-living compensation to workers should "leave more money in people's pockets", while the incentives to go for alternative energy and an advice service from Enemalta should help households cut down on their electricity consumption.

Importers of solar panels and photovoltaic units
With the incentives announced for both households and businesses, importers of alternative energy equipment will be expecting to see an increase in business.

Losers

Yacht and swimming pool owners
Swimming pool owners - both private and commercial - will have to pay higher licence fees while yacht licences will also go up.

Layabouts
Unemployed people who have been registering for work for more than five years will have to get active by working in the community.

Motorists
While those buying new vehicles might save some cash if they go for smaller, energy-efficient cars or motorcycles, they will have to fork out more money for fuel. Petrol has gone up by €0.055 per litre and diesel by €0.02, with the new duty going into a fund towards alternative energy projects.

Shops and supermarkets
With the introduction of a €0.15 levy on each plastic bag, shops and supermarkets will have to decide whether to absorb the increase or pass it on to their customers.

Smokers
The €0.20 increase on cigarettes' excise duty will mean an extra expense for smokers, although curbing the habit would no doubt be good for their health.

Sixteen-year-old drinkers
Now that the legal drinking age has been raised to 17, 16-year-olds will have to wait another year before clinking their glasses and having a tipple. Bigger losers will be the roughly one-third of Paceville entertainment outlets which cater to the younger set.

Employers
They will have to fork out an extra €212.16 for each of their workers every year after the government announced a €4.08 weekly cost-of-living adjustment.

Importers of non-energy efficient bulbs
Unless they start importing energy-efficient lighting, they could be losing their business after the introduction of an eco-tax on traditional bulbs and neon tubes.

Public finances
The deficit has tripled to €200 million, forcing the government to postpone plans for a balanced budget by 2010.

Almost everyone
The increase in water and electricity bills for the vast majority of businesses and households might not have been announced in the budget but has surely not been forgotten.