Government owes €50 million on land valued at €500 million

Parliamentary Secretary for lands Jason Azzopardi has issued yet another denial of claims by General Workers Union daily l-orizzont, that government’s dues to landowners whose property was expropriated for public purposes amounted to €500 billion.

As things stand, the law that regulates these expropriations is that government compensates landowners at the price of the land at the time of expropriation, and not at its current market price.

L-orizzont’s news report has insisted the value of expropriated lands whose owners are yet to be compensated would stand at €500 million had this compensation reflected present-day values.

Azzopardi is insisting that the figure government owes to landowners is €50 million, and said the lands department had paid €104 million for all land expropriated since 2000.

Azzopardi said the value of pre-1995 expropriated land was €50 million, after which the law was changed so that expropriated landowners are paid compensation faster. “The news report is a lie… the €50 million comprises land which in its majority was expropriated during Labour governments and their owners were never paid. The present-day government is remedying this injustice,” Azzopardi said.

L-orizzont is insisting that Malta’s national accounts are not based on accrual accounting, which means the actual land expropriated is valued at half a billion euros, without interest.