Malta's budget for 2021, unveiled on Monday in parliament, prioritises the country's economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic over anything else.

So what did Budget 2021 offer you?

Economy

• No new taxes for a fourth consecutive year;

• Wage supplement given to pandemic-affected businesses to continue until March 2021 at the very least. Eligibility for the supplement will be revised at the turn of the year, based on data from tax returns; 

• Income tax refund to increase to between €45 and €80 for single people and €50 to €95 for married couples; 

• Government voucher scheme to be extended with a further €100 in vouchers per person; 

• VAT exempt threshold for businesses to rise to €30,000 from €20,000; 

• For Gozo, existing schemes are to be extended. 

Workers

• Cost-of-Living-Adjustment of €1.75 per week;

• An extra day of leave to compensate for public holidays falling on weekends;

• Better incentives for private pensions: the tax-exempt threshold is being increased to €3,000 from €2,000;

• Public sector workers who suffered past injustices to receive compensation: €9 million has been allocated for this; 

• Workers or heirs of former dockyard workers who suffered asbestos poisoning are to receive an as-yet-undefined amount of compensation; 

Workers will receive a €1.75 weekly COLA increase. Photo: Mark Zammit Cordina

Parents

• Children’s allowance increased for all families;

• In-work benefit thresholds to be extended to a further 4,500 families;

• Foster care allowance to go up by €10 per week;

• A €1,000 grant to couples who adopt a child locally; 

• €300 grant for parents who have to quit work to care for a disabled child older than 16; 

• Supplementary allowance to rise; 

• Families receiving supplementary allowance will also be eligible for a €150 grant previously given to families defined as being at-risk of poverty;

• People hiring a carer to look after a person with a disability are now eligible for a €6,000 yearly grant;

Parents accompany children to school in September. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

The elderly 

• Pensioners to get COLA plus €3.25 per week, amounting to a total increase of €5 per week; 

• Pensioner couples paying income tax on their married computation to be exempt from tax; 

• Elderly people who do not qualify for a pension to get a €350 bonus instead of the previous €250; 

• People born before 1962 will now be able to count work done as 16- and 17-year olds towards their National Insurance contributions; 

• Service pension beneficiaries to get a further €200 deduction when calculating their social security pension; 

• Tallinja card to be given free for all those aged 70 or older, instead of 75 or older; 

• Government bonds with favourable interest rates to be reserved for senior citizens; 

• Aid grant to employ carers to increase from €5,291 to €6,000;

Property buyers 

• Buying and selling property incentives are to be extended;

• Tax incentives for first-time buyers to be improved to up to €200,000 on property value, up from €175,000;

• Reduced tax on property given by donation; 

• A property transfer concession of 1.5% tax (introduced three years ago) is to be extended by a further year; 

NGOs and youths

• NGOs to be exempt on tax if their income is under €50,000;

• Students who continue studying after age 16 to get one year of free internet.

Transportation  

• Car scrappage scheme to be extended and maximum grant to rise to €7,000;  

• Safe cycle routes project to be announced;

• Extending or improving incentives for alternative transport use;

• Cars which are only used on weekends or public holidays to pay 35% less in road licence fees;

• Grants for taxis to be wheelchair accessible; 

Works at the Santa Luċija bypass: the government's seven-year roadworks plan will continue in 2021.

• Roadworks on Ħal Kirkop tunnel, Airport intersection project, Luqa junction project and Msida creek junction to begin;

• Study into mass public transport system to enter the second phase.  

Health 

• New medicines for chronic or mental illness to be added to state-provided medicines; 

• Investment in osteoporosis treatment;

• More beds to be made available for the elderly in public and private hospitals;

• New centre for palliative cancer care developed in conjunction with Hospice Malta to open;  

• Government to unveil a strategy to eliminate hepatitis C.