- Free public transport for residents from 2022
- ‘Biggest-ever’ financial boost to help the environment
- Reduced income tax for part-timers
- Increase in pensions
- COLA of €1.75 a week
Incentives to promote social and environmental measures and boost work were the hallmarks of the 2022 Budget presented by Finance Minister Clyde Caruana last night, the last of this legislature.
Addressing his first budget as minister, Caruana described it as the biggest-ever financial boost towards the environment while Prime Minister Robert Abela later said it was the budget with the biggest number of social measures in the country’s history.
The budget comes amid reports that Abela intends to call a late November election, six months before the term of this legislature runs out.
In what appears to be a major drive to try cut down on vehicular traffic, all residents will be entitled to use public buses for free from October 1, 2022.
Luxembourg is the only other European state to have such an incentive.
Likewise, additional fiscal incentives have been introduced to shift drivers towards electric vehicles.
During a two-and-a-half hour speech, Caruana unveiled the introduction of tax waivers for those who buy residential properties built more than 20 years ago but have been vacant for seven years as well as properties in urban conservation areas and new properties built in ‘typical Maltese’ style.
The scheme is capped up to the first €750,000 of the value of the properties, on which no duties or capital gains tax will be charged.
Senior citizens will see their pensions increase for a seventh year in a row and will receive an extra €260 a year or €5 a week. Of that €1.75 is the increase for the cost of living and €3.25 is the additional increase.
Free childcare services will be extended to evenings and weekends for people working shifts in one of a list of measures that is aimed to get more people to work.
The measures take place as the government expects to halve the deficit of the public finances next year as economic recovery picks up after the blow of the pandemic.
The deficit this year is expected to be 11.1 per cent, considerably more than the 5.9 per cent projected when the 2021 budget was presented.
Initial reactions to the budget were mixed but generally positive.
During a news conference, the prime minister used examples of people in specific life circumstances to highlight how their income will increase. But he insists that taxes owed must be paid.
On the other hand, opposition leader Bernard Grech said the government had ignored several sectors of society, including teachers, nurses and the police.