Muscat presents €35,000 donation from auctioned personal car

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has presented to the Malta Community Chest Fund a €35,000 donation from the proceeds of his personal car that had been auctioned off for charity.

“A topic of political controversy has now turned into an act of charity,” Muscat said, when presenting the donation to President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca at the Grandmasters’ Palace.

The controversial car, an Alfa Romeo, was the subject of much criticism against Muscat when in 2013 he kept the personal car for government business, allowing him to claim over €7,000 a year as an annual allowance.

Muscat did not even pay tax on the €7,000 allowance he received every year for using his personal car for official purposes, netting him over €28,000 tax-free over the four-year legislature. His pay as Prime Minister as just over €52,000.

The Nationalist Party frequently criticised Muscat in the last legislature by arguing that his first act as Prime Minister was to rent his personal car out to himself.

In his first TV interview since his landslide election this month, Muscat – in a symbolic act – announced that the car was going to be auctioned off during a Labour Party fund-raising marathon.