In his interesting article, John Consiglio (April 19) asks whether a new banking model is needed. A very relevant question in view of the many complaints by the public in general.
Banks are acting as if they do not need their depositors’ money. They no longer advertise for new money. It seems that they have enough of it.
Strangely, they give the impression that they do not want to be seen as being too customer-friendly. The result of all this is what Consiglio describes in his contribution.
But the banks would do well to keep in mind that without the circa €20 billion of their customers’ money, they would be out of business. Yes, the banks’ customers, even as stakeholders, deserve better!
The result of the banks’ attitude, together with the onerous conditions and bureaucracy imposed by the authorities on the banks when accepting money, may be one of the main reasons for the mountain of idle cash-in-hand that exists out there at the moment.
Of course, this includes the millions of euros of undeclared income. This was confirmed by the former Minister of Finance when he said that the cash-in-hand in Malta exceeds that held in any other country.
The hundreds of luxury cars: Ferrari, Maserati, Mercedes, Jaguar and Porsche on our roads corroborates the minister’s statement. The ever-increasing number of boats and super yachts, the sumptuous villas with pools, jewellery and expensive wines, are also convenient vehicles to launder ill-gotten cash.
The Planning Authority board continues to churn out building permits even when case officers recommend refusal. Unfortunately, not enough of these permits are for basic social housing, while those for commercial mega projects are numerous. It seems that the tax and VAT evaders never had it so good.
But against this scenario of wealth and abundance, it is impossible not to digress a little to remember the 70,000 or so at risk of poverty, the widows and the minimum wage earners who struggle to stretch their meagre income to the end of the month; those who are still waiting for basic modest social housing and the many others who have found themselves in difficulty because of rising prices, foremost among which are the food and medicinal increases.
The oft-expressed opinion that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer is not just an idle cliché. The chasm between the rich and the poor is indeed getting wider. We can feel it and touch it with our own hands whenever we go to the grocer or the pharmacy.
And this despite the millions of euros flowing in from the sale of European passports, from EU funds and from “drawings” on the national debt which has now risen to a record figure of more than €8 billion. When to this figure we add the €5 billion of uncollected taxes, we must admit that the problem here is a serious one.
Let us not blame everything on the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. The basic reason for this state of affairs is that some of us are compulsive tax evaders.
Perhaps this acquired trait has its roots in our colonial past, when diddling the distant imperial overlords was considered fair game and justified occult compensation for their lack of adequate financial investment in our island.
The basic reason for this state of affairs is that some of us are compulsive tax evaders- Joe Pace Ross
We must dump this forma mentis. We are now on our own and an independent country. We cannot go on like this.
To make matters worse, we were naïve enough to adopt unsustainable economic models that had an expiry date and were doomed to fail. The result is that we are now running on empty and unless we change our ways, sooner or later, we will have to face the consequences of our short-sightedness.
But there is still hope. When the Minister of Finance declared his resolve to remedy matters by starting to collect the €5 billion of uncollected taxes, I could not but express my solidarity with him. All of us must support him in this Herculean task.
He will no doubt encounter stiff opposition, mainly from those around him. In this regard, I wonder why the UWO (Unexplained Wealth Order), which was intended to expose those swimming in unexplained wealth, was placed on the back burner by the cabinet? Would this not have been a commendable first step to remedy the situation?
Exemptions, special arrangements by the Commissioner of Revenue, extensions and postponements will not only be seem as discriminatory but will also stymie the minister’s noble intentions.
If the humble fishmonger with his messy hands can still have a cash register on the back flap of his van on a street corner, why cannot the rest of us do the same from our comfortable offices?
May our minister go straight for the jugular without fear or favour. May he start with the obvious. May he engage sufficient officials of undoubted integrity with no political allegiances. May he ignore vain pleas to take it easy.
May he never forget that the uncollected €5 billion in taxes belong in all equity to our poor and to our widows and orphans! They cannot wait any longer.
But I have digressed too far afield, so let me revert to John Consiglio and the banks. If the devil in this story is the banking system, then we must give the banks their due as we do to the devil. And therefore we must acknowledge that the banks are among the few on this island who pay all their tax due on time.
If the rest of us will do the same, the task of Minister Caruana to collect what is due, and drag this country into the 21st century, will be much easier. Sincerely, I wish him every success.
Joe Pace Ross, retired bank executive