MLP pledges would 'lower pensions, increase rates'

The Labour Party's pledge to reduce recurrent expenditure by two per cent would lead to a reduction in people's pensions, Finance Minister John Dalli said yesterday.

Replying to comments made earlier by Labour leader Alfred Sant on the economy, Mr Dalli said: "Labour should be judged by what it has delivered and not by what it says."

Mr Dalli said he was surprised to hear Labour finance spokesman Leo Brincat saying that he (Mr Dalli) had inflated the deficit to Lm150 million in 1998 in order to be able to boast he had cut the deficit.

"It was Dr Sant himself who, in an interview with l-orizzont on August 8, 1998 said the deficit stood at Lm150 million. So why is he accusing me of inflating the deficit?" Mr Dalli asked.

"The MLP is also promising to cut subsidies to the shipyards, the Water Services Corporation and Enemalta. This means that water and electricity rates would increase again. Dr Sant had already told shipyard workers he would cut the subsidies, but his short term in office had not allowed him to do it. Now we have it again in black and white that he would do it," Mr Dalli said.

He argued that by promising a GDP growth of five per cent, the MLP was promising "more years of uncertainty and crises".

"We have that kind of GDP growth now, with all the international uncertainty that has been surrounding us since September 11. With the MLP's promises we will not progress and move ahead," Mr Dalli said.

One must also bear in mind what all economists were saying: that Malta would actually be worse off if it stayed out of the EU, Mr Dalli said.

"Dr Sant is setting a number of targets without telling us how he will reach them," he said.

Mr Dalli said he agreed with the MLP that the country needed a serious government and did not need any shocks. "Between 1996 and 1998, we had continuous shocks. We had two years of crises, which are still vivid in people's minds. We did not have a serious government. On the contrary, we had a government that gave rise to uncertainty by creating a deficit, by unnecessarily changing VAT and a party which was characterised by internal crises."

Mr Dalli said he would be filing a libel suit against the MLP over its latest billboard which, he said, attempts to implicate him in scandal.