The Nationalist Party presented a parliamentary motion on Thursday, stating that inflation in Malta is the government’s fault.
The motion is set to be shot down by the government, which presented a counter-motion praising its own efforts to curb inflation.
“Cost of living in our country is a serious problem because of the government's poor decisions and is negatively affecting the Maltese and Gozitan people,” the PN motion’s first proposed resolution reads.
The motion, presented by PN leader Bernard Grech, goes on to demand several measures to curb the cost of living, including not taxing Cost of Living Adjustments, tax credits for small and medium-sized businesses, and a national fund to support import-export businesses.
The PN motion also calls for a change in the country’s economic model “that is not based on uncontrolled increases in the population but on fostering new and innovative economic sectors that offer better-paid jobs for Maltese and Gozitan workers.”
PN leader Grech was speaking after the government proposed a counter-motion that deleted all of the opposition’s wording and instead hailed the government’s economic and social policies.
Addressing the parliamentary chamber's camera, Grech said the PN was concerned with the well-being of the people, while the government was only concerned with itself.
“This motion forced Parliament to discuss the rising cost of living and proposals that the PN has been making for years,” Grech told Parliament as well as viewers of the PN’s media stations.
He promised that a PN government would implement its anti-inflation measures within his first year in office.
Economy shadow minister Jerome Caruana Cilia said the government has presided over increasing wealth inequality and higher rates of poverty and homelessness.
Reacting to the PN motion, Finance Minister Clyde Caruana said Eurostat statistics prove that government efforts have curbed inflation, not caused it.
“This is unlike what a PN government did between 2008 and 2010. Back then, the government exacerbated the rising cost of living,” he said.
Caruana quoted from the EU’s HICP-administered price index.
The finance minister said the PN’s national export-import fund proposal would violate EU law, as governments are only allowed to give businesses €300,000 in aid every three years.
“So effectively, what the opposition is proposing is a pittance that won’t work,” he said.
Prime Minister and PL leader Robert Abela listed government fiscal and social policies when responding to the PN motion, citing an income tax cut announced in the last budget, an increase in the statutory minimum wage, higher pensions, and a carer’s grant for those who look after their relatives.
Energy Minister Miriam Dalli similarly pointed out government incentives to curb inflation, particularly a subsidy on rising energy costs.
“I have to thank the opposition for this motion because they have given us the chance to explain all we have done on this issue,” she said.
She then went on to present the government’s counter-motion.
Parliament will vote on the motions at a date that is yet to be established.