News • 30 March 2003

Alfred Sant’s promises: an insult to the Maltese - Dalli

Finance Minister John Dalli said Alfred Sant has made a desperate attempt to buy people over in the few days before the elections.

Dalli said the leader of the Opposition believed the electorate could be bought with a small amount of money and said Sant’s promises were an insult to all Maltese.

Minister Dalli said Labour’s new promises constituted a poor copy of what the PN has done in the past two years.

Dalli explained that the PN in government had reduced income tax not for two months and once, but for an indefinite period of time so that the benefits could be enjoyed year after year.

The minister said that in the case of a married couple earning up to Lm5,000 the PN government has permanently reduced income tax amounting to four months tax yearly.

For those that earn up to Lm6,000 yearly the PN had reduced tax by a value equivalent to four months tax as well. And for those earning between Lm7,000 and Lm10,000 tax was reduced by a recurring three month equivalent.

John Dalli said the PN government had also thought of those earning less than Lm4,000 yearly and in last year’s budget those not reaching the tax threshold were given a supplementary allowance that was also a permanent measure.

Dalli said the PN measures were the result of the good governance of the Nationalist administration that had started to solve Malta’s financial deficit problems.

Dalli said that Alfred Sant’s politics will lead to uncertainly and stagnation and that, in Sant’s own words, will mean wage freezes, a pension freeze, the removal of subsidies and reduced overtime possibilities.

The finance minister said a new PN government will not just be getting Lm81 million from the EU to finance many projects, but will create a sense of security and economic growth, better wages, increased investment and more work.

Dalli compared Dr Alfred Sant’s promises to his pre-1996 pledge to remove VAT and said the uncertainty the Labour Party is creating will create a worse situation for the self-employed.

The finance minister said a re-elected PN government would create wealth through a stronger economy, that would create a richer population, and a more viable market for the self employed.

Minister Dalli rounded off his TV address by announcing that a prominent MLP candidate had told a member of the electorate on a house visit that there were too many people employed by the government, at Air Malta, at the Drydocks. The MLP candidate told his host that a future Labour government would finance its projects by firing the excess employees and offering them half their current pay.