Controversial car that earned Muscat €7,000 a year to be auctioned

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat will be putting up his personal car for auction, the sales proceeds of which will partly go to charity.

The controversial vehicle, 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.

In his first interview since being re-elected with TVM head of news Reno Bugeja, Muscat said the car will be passed on to the Labour Party to sell off, with part of the proceeds going to charity.

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 €28,000 tax-free over the four-year legislature. His pay as prime minister was just over €52,000.

The Prime Minister’s salary is taxed at source. Apart from the annual tax-free payment, Muscat also received an unlimited fuel allowance and the use of a second car provided by

The National Audit Office had already referred to a case involving the chairman of the Malta Council for Science and Technology, Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, saying that it was an “anomaly” for fuel expenses to be paid over and above a car allowance. “In line with general government practices, the award of a car allowance is a comprehensive compensation for waiving the entitlement of a fully expensed car, which also comprises the consumption of fuel, and thus any further related allowance is precluded as it is considered as constituting a double payment of the same benefit,” the Auditor General said.