Updated at 1.28pm

Reactions to Budget 2019 from unions and lobby groups continued to pour in on Tuesday, after an initial flurry of reactions immediately following the Buget speech on Monday evening. 

Missed the Budget speech? Here's a summary of the key measures it featured. 

The Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses welcomed the Budget surplus, saying this should lead to further investment in the health sector addressing the problem of lack of professionals including of nurses and social workers.

It said it would be exploring in greater detail the decision to allow public sector workers to continue working past their retirement age.

The MUMN said it expected the benefits given in the Budget to workers who risked their life while in the line of duty to also be extended to health sector employees, who also risked their life.

Malta Developers Association

The Malta Developers Association (MDA) said the Budget reflected the economic progress Malta was making and was a good effort towards ensuring that everyone benefitted from this progress.

It noted that incentives for property buyers introduced in the past on its suggestion were being retained.

Other new suggestions by the MDA were also taken up by government, such as that of encouraging the use of private land for parking facilities as well as encouraging landlords to offer longer leases.

It welcomed the new equity sharing property scheme, intended to help the over 40s buy a home.

The MDA regretted that its suggestions to promote energy-saving measures in buildings and aid contractors buy new environmentally-friendly equipment were not taken up.

Alternattiva Demokratika said that while the Budget had strengthened the social security net for various sectors of society, it missed the mark on environmental grounds.

The speech did not make a single mention of the “circular economy”, despite the Environment Minister’s repeated mention of this as a priority.

While the Budget speech highlighted plans to introduce waste-to-energy technology, there was no indication of how these methods – which require large volumes of waste to be viable – would be reconciled with plans to reduce volumes of waste.

AD was similarly critical of the Budget’s failure to mention a constitutional convention to strengthen rule of law in the country and slammed Finance Minister Edward Scicluna for telling parliament that Malta was fighting tax avoidance while the country was systematically encouraging companies to relocate their tax base here.

Gozo Tourism Association said the Budget overall reflected the economic growth environment in various sectors including the tourism industry.

It said that while no fiscal measures were introduced toward the Gozitan tourism industry, there were measures which targetted the improvement of the tourism  product in Gozo.

It welcomed the extension of the refund scheme through which employers would get a 30% refund (up to €6,000), of the salary paid for each new job created in the Gozitan private sector on a three-year contract.

The Gozo University Group said the increase in stipends would help cover expenses students had. They would also benefit from the extended free public transport measure. Public transport should, however, be improved and made more accessible and reliable.

The announcement that, as from next year, MATSEC and SEC exams were to be free of charge as a major step forward that would ease the financial burden on students and their parents.

 

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