Clyde Caruana told parliament on Monday the government sent 269,563 tax refund and stimulus cheques between May 1 and June 6 of this year.

The customary pre-election cheques were this year described as “recognition” of workers’ contributions to building Malta’s economy.

This despite the OSCE warning that they will once again be scrutinising this practice, having already said in 2022 that it does “not conform to international standards and good practice”.

Some voters also received a second cheque in the form of additional COLA payments for vulnerable households. 

On Monday the Finance Minister was answering a parliamentary question by PN MP Graham Bencini, who asked Caruana to explain the reasoning behind the issuing of the cheques.

He also asked the minister to say how many cheques were sent to people who were not Maltese citizens.

Caruana said the 269,563 cheques were part of the Nippremjaw il-Bżulija [Rewarding hard work] scheme. The scheme formed part of a process launched in 2018 to compensate workers, with the lowest earners receiving the highest compensation. 

Of these, 185,202 were sent to Maltese citizens, while 84,361 were sent to non-Maltese citizens.