Delia needs to explain where money used to pay tax arrears came from, Labour Party says

Labour Party refers to €55,000 which today’s edition of its newspaper Kullhadd said Delia had obtained to pay his tax arreas

Opposition leader Adrian Delia
Opposition leader Adrian Delia

The Labour Party has said that Opposition leader Adrian Delia had not explained how he had obtained the money which today’s issue of Labour newspaper Kullhadd said he had used to start paying his tax arrears.

The Kullhadd story has claimed that Delia had gotten his hands on €55,000, which he had used to settle pending tax payments. It also said he had made the first such payment a few days after the Nationalist Party had held a fund-raising marathon, but it refrained from directly alleging that there was some connection between the two events.

Delia had, during a Radio 101 interview earlier today, squashed any rumours implying the had paid his taxes using donated money, stressing that he had nothing to hide and Kulhadd could investigate him as much as it wanted to.

“While one asks why Delia made no public statement that he had started paying [his tax arrears] and instead left it to the media to reveal this, what is more important is that he explain the provenance of the €55,000,” the Labour Party said it a statement.

“Delia needs to understand that he is now leader of the Opposition, and can no longer use the excuse that he is a private citizen, as he has done for the past months, to justify the fact that he did not honour his obligations, unlike the majority of Maltese people who are honest citizens,” it added.