Most vehicle road licences will rise by €10 per year, Finance Minister Edward Scicluna confirmed on TimesTalk this evening. There will be exceptions for very small vehicles.
Criticised by former minister Tonio Fenech for having hidden the extent of rises in indirect taxes in the Budget speech, Prof Scicluna said the figures were presented in exactly the same way as former PN governments had done.
Mr Fenech observed that revenue from various licences and permits alone would rise by some €21 million, almost as much as the cut in power tariffs would cost.
He said the Labour Party had not only promised not to increase taxes, but also not to increase the tax burden. Yet as a result of the Budget, the government was projecting increased revenue of €72 million.
Prof Scicluna said most of that increase would come from economic growth. He was pressed to give the exact figure by former minister Tonio Fenech Budget makes substantial increase in indirect taxes amounting to 72 million.
Prof Scicluna said the government was conservative in its projections of economic growth.
He said the measures announced yesterday would cost the government €107 million.
Mr Fenech observed that by 2016 the government would increase the debt by €550 million despite having promised to reduce such debt.
Replying, Prof Scicluna that in Mr Fenech's last year, government borrowing was €342 million while this year it was €180 million and next year it would be reduced by a further €40 million. It was no surprise, therefore, that the EU was saying that the wind in Malta's economic sails was gathering strength.
Reacting to EU projections that the deficit would widen, Prof Scicluna said he was very confident it would actually narrow.
In other parts of the discussion, Mr Fenech said many declarations by the government were not supported by funding allocations. For example, there were no allocations for the new €12m law courts building or the €1.1 million home for the elderly in Gozo. And the funding allocation for NGOs was being reduced to €2 million from €3 million, hurting particularly associations that catered for persons with disabilities.
Today's programme - produced by the Times of Malta - included comments by the Prime Minister on the Budget (See above).