I POLL

The iPoll is a synergy between MaltaToday, the Internet and you the readers.

Every week the web sites www.maltatoday.com.mt and www.maltamag.com will feature an opinion poll on a particular issue. The results of this Internet poll will then be published in MaltaToday the following Sunday along with an opinion article.

People who send in the attached coupon with their voting preference will automatically participate in a competition. One lucky participant will be put into a draw for a chance to win a Kia Rio.

This week’s question concerned the Budget. Various words have been used to describe the Budget, such as ‘cautious’, ‘misleading’, ‘cosmetic’ and ‘prudent’. But did its creators have an election in mind?

A misleading budget

By Dr Sandro Schembri Adami

The 2002 Budget is only a cosmetic exercise in finance. It seeks to raise taxes by Lm60 million, but with a resultant decrease in the budget deficit of only Lm6 million.

A big slice of the increased tax revenue will be used to finance public spending, which is rising beyond control. At the same time, private initiative is strangled by the high taxation on income. The man in the street cannot be misled into thinking that this is a fruitful budget. On the contrary, it is a budget with empty promises. It is a budget which has left the common man in the position he was before – deprived.

Pre-budgetary requests from industrial organisations to lower taxation have fallen upon deaf ears. There was no revision of the tax bands and tax rates, except for married couples, which turned out to be cosmetic changes. The slight changes result in a maximum potential tax saving of a mere Lm145. And saving over what?
It is only a saving from the tax increases that resulted due to reduced tax bands and lowered tax ceiling announced in the previous budget. This budget is only trying to wipe off the damages of past mistakes.

Mistakes are bound to continue. The planned privatisation programme puts jobs and working conditions at risk for those concerned. The increase in the price of diesel creates a burden on industry and even private users. The manufacturing industry is given the sidelines through lack of initiatives. Plans to boost the economy simply do not exist, especially in the sphere of foreign investment.

One cannot simply speak of going in the right direction when the economic facts in the country prove otherwise. The Finance Minister’s closing budget statement that "we can put our country among the best in the world" is only wishful thinking, far beyond the realities brought about by this budget. Overstated optimism, with no realistic backing, will blur our country’s future.

This budget will not work miracles just because the Finance Minister decides to say so. We must keep our feet firmly on the ground in order to progress.

Every budget should provide a strategy for the future. Yet, this budget offers no down-to-earth plans. Instead, it proves the present government’s crisis of ideas and pinpoints the need for a change in government in the coming election.

Dr Schembri Adami is a former MP and Labour Party candidate in the forthcoming election.