[WATCH] EU rules prevent checks on every single car that comes from Sicily, PM tells GRTU

Certain EU regulations prevent Malta from carrying out extensive border controls, precluding the country from blocking contraband from filtering through and entering the market, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said.

He was responding to a proposal made by GRTU during a meeting the government held with the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises at Castille.

“Some border controls are impossible due to EU regulations. I cannot stop anyone from entering the country and we cannot check every single car that comes from Sicily,” he said.

GRTU President Paul Abela told the Prime Minister that contraband entering Malta was ultimately competing with small businesses and he asked whether customs and terminal authorities could be equipped with better systems to combat illegal products entering the competitive Maltese market.

"The highway between Malta and Sicily is the catamaran. We cannot check every single traveller as we would be breaching the fundamental freedom of movement in accordance with EU regulation," Muscat replied.

Abela also suggested that the 2020 Budget should aim to improve the pensions of self-employed persons. He complained that people with businesses were not entitled to pensions in line with those who were not self-employed.

"A pension of €1,000 a month is not enough and hardly adequate,” Abela said, also suggesting that medium enterprises be subject to a 20% income tax, effectively lowering the current rate so that these small businesses could be at a level playing field with larger competitors," Abela said.

Muscat said government’s priority was to keep the economy growing and to implement the proposals with which the Labour Party was elected in 2017.

"Our priority is for the economy to keep growing. Otherwise, whatever we discussed with social partners becomes impossible to implement. There will be no surprises in the Budget, in the sense that we aim to implement what we promised.

"Our economy is driven by two main pillars — to allow businesses to work and allow the economy to flourish, and then distribute the wealth to whoever requires it the most," Muscat said, adding that the rule of thumb was not to spend more than the government had in its coffers.

Finance Minister Edward Scicluna said that in Malta there was effectively no corporate tax regime, in the sense that the tax was on the individual’s income and not on the company’s returns.

"With regards to the catamaran issue, you have to see the other side of the argument: people complaining of harassment, for example. There is a limit to how much regular checking one can do," Scicluna said.

The meeting between GRTU and the government carried on behind closed doors.