PN welcomes new tariffs but calls for tax honesty

The Nationalist Party yesterday welcomed the new electricity tariffs but called on the Government to be honest and show the full picture of its Budget measures – including the full extent of new taxes.

PN deputy leader Mario de Marco said the Government forgot to mention that the cost of producing energy had fallen by €1 million a week through the new power station extension, while further savings would be made through the interconnector with Sicily.

“It seems that this Budget is just another public relations exercise with the Government saying one thing and the figures showing another,” he said in St George’s Square, Valletta, with the canopy that the Government is using to hold its Budget press conferences in the background.

Citing an example, Dr de Marco said that while the Government was saying it would rake in an additional €21 million from new excise duties and licences, the estimates showed that the increase would amount to €72 million.

He said the Government was also failing to explain why an investment of €10 million in a renewable energy scheme for industry had been cancelled and not replaced.

Dr de Marco said the Budget also failed to address the issue of job creation, with no new ideas, while the Economy Ministry had seen its budget for capital projects slashed by €25 million.

Describing Monday’s Budget as one of “illusion rather than vision”, the PN’s spokesman for energy, George Pullicino, said that the Government was wasting thousands of euros on tents and billboards in selling its illusion.

Mr Pullicino said the Government had allocated almost nothing towards renewable energy. Despite its promise about the power station, and despite calling it a “cancer factory” before the election, it had continued to make use of heavy fuel oil.

He challenged the Government to come out with the real figures on revenue from new taxes that he said were compensating for the spending going to new jobs for the clique, including €13,000 a month for the Energy Minister’s wife.