The time was ripe for income tax rates to be revised, the Nationalist Party said on Wednesday in its pre-budget document.

“While Malta’s maximum rate of 35 per cent was great back in 1989, when the maximum rate was reduced from 65 per cent, it looks high compared to other countries,” the PN said in its document.

Finance shadow minister Mario de Marco said the government should study the option of lowering tax rates even more.

The Nationalist Party also lashed out at a “new form of legal slavery” created by those who exploit migrant workers.

In the document, entitled “An Economy by the people, for the people”, the party referred to human rights NGO Aditus, which warned of the severe exploitation of migrant workers “at times amounting to forced labour, slavery and trafficking”.

“Is their contribution to our society being properly valued, or are we seeing the creation of a new form of legal slavery, the Nationalist Party asked.

Poverty, it said, was making a re-appearance after having been eradicated. 

However, it said a carrying capacity exercise was also needed to determine whether there was pressure on the country’s tourism and general infrastructure by a major influx of foreign workers.

Turning to pensions, the party said there were 21,000 pensioners struggling to make ends meet.

The government, it said, should introduce lower tariffs for essential items used by pensioners so as to ensure they retained a sustainable level of income.

The elderly should also be encouraged to continue contributing to the country while enjoying their retirement.

PN leader Adrian Delia, who presented the document to the social partners, said long-term planning was needed so that the country could have an economy 'by the people, for the people' where no one was left behind despite economic growth. 

The government, he said, was growing the economy through an influx of people, when real growth came from an increase in production. He warned that an unplanned influx strained the infrastructure and other sectors such as transport, the environment and the rental market.