A former finance minister described the government's wide-ranging cash injection announcement on Thursday as a measure to “buy votes with our own money”.

Prime Minister Robert Abela said workers and students will receive cheques worth €100, while pensioners and people on social benefits will receive up to €200 as part of a cash injection to the economy. 

This, the Prime Minister said, is over and above the tax refunds ranging from €60 to €145 that were previously announced in the budget. 

The government’s total outlay will be €70 million and will benefit 380,000 people. 

In a post of Facebook, former Nationalist minister Tonio Fenech said “this is no tax refund, many recipients have not even paid tax let alone deserve a refund. This is buying votes with our own money and in the meantime we balloon the deficit to over €1.5 billion”.

Fenech said this is “irresponsibility and Malta is fast becoming a failed democracy”.

If the government has €70 million to spend, it should address the money towards families burdened by the cost of living and not shower everyone with a token “so-called refund”, said Fenech, who served as minister between 2008 and 2013.

The measure was also criticised by the Nationalist Party which rubbished the measure as “crumbs” saying it was “a desperate pre-election attempt” by a panicked Prime Minister who was caught taking €17,000 per month in government contracts.