The Budget does nothing to solve the problems which the government itself has created, the Nationalist Party said on Monday.

This is the Budget of a government which lacks a plan, lacks ideas, and lacks solutions, Opposition leader Adrian Delia told a press conference.

What the people had been presented with were recycled ideas which had not been implemented over the past few years, he said. 

He argued that the cost of living wage adjustment was too low, and the government had not addressed the issue of high rents.

The people would continue to be 'robbed' through the water and power tariffs. Despite the Prime Minister’s pledge last year, the Budget failed to address the billing system, through which consumers were being overcharged.

He said the government was also not addressing the problem of traffic congestion or air pollution.

Nor was it tackling the problems in the financial services sector caused by its own undermining of the island's reputation.  

The government was not proposing ways to grow the various sectors of the economy other than through population growth.

“There is no single economic sector which is being identified by the government for further investment,” Dr Delia said.

He said that government’s statement that no new taxes were introduced was a far cry from reality, as such measures were imposed throughout the rest of the year, like the increase in fuel prices.

The government had not come up with ideas to encourage people to join the teaching profession; to safeguard agriculture and fisheries and to improve the lot of the middle class. 

Among the recycled promises, he said, were the announcements of new schools in Qawra, Msida and Victoria, the fast ferry service, the fibre optic link to Gozo and the promised race track. 

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