Cheques having a total value of just over €4 million, sent by the government in May last year in what is known as the tax refund scheme, have remained uncashed, the finance minister said on Tuesday.

The minister, Clyde Caruana, was replying to a parliamentary question by Nationalist MP Jerome Caruana Cilia.

He said the cheques were part of a procedure introduced in 2018 where workers were compensated annually, with the biggest compensation given to those who earned the least. 

He said that 38,267 cheques with a total value of €4,039,320 had not been cashed.