An extra day of leave for each public holiday that falls on a weekend would cost the private sector close to €9 million a year, which translates to less than a normal wage rise, the finance minister said yesterday.
Edward Scicluna made this point when addressing social partners during a pre-Budget business breakfast held yesterday at the Casino Maltese in Valletta.
He noted that the measure, included in the Labour Party’s manifesto, would cost less than 0.5 per cent of a month’s salary.
“Business needs time to adjust. It is payment in kind,” Prof. Scicluna remarked.
His comments were made in the wake of the recent warning from employers and entrepreneurs that such a proposal would seriously dent competitiveness.
Nonetheless, the government is insisting that it will forge ahead, saying it is only a question of when and how, rather than if.
In some cases, tenants are faced with outrageous rent hikes, but the solution is not to intervene and cap prices
In his address yesterday, the finance minister outlined the main areas on which the forthcoming Budget, set for October 9 would be focusing. While insisting there was no “property bubble”, he said that government would be addressing the increase in rent rates by rolling out Budget incentives to increase the supply of property on the market and keep prices affordable.
Prof. Scicluna admitted that in some cases, tenants were being faced with “outrageous” rent hikes but said that the solution was not to intervene directly by capping prices.
During the debate, Michael Stivala from the Malta Developers’ Association called for an upward revision of the monthly minimum rent threshold for citizenship scheme applicants, saying they were absorbing most of the low-budget apartments on the market. Mr Stivala suggested a minimum threshold in the region of €3,000.
However, Prof. Scicluna did not commit, saying that this was an “interesting point”. He also hinted that the government was considering extending the benefits rolled out three years ago to encourage those on the unemployment register to seek a job.
“The tapering schemes [such that the employee continued to receive a fraction of their unemployment benefits to boost their income] will terminate this year, and we need to find solutions to have other incentives in place,” Prof. Scicluna said.
Asked about the proposal to have free school transport across the board – even for Church and independent schools – in a bid to mitigate morning rush hour traffic congestion, the minister said the plan was to roll it out in October of next year.