During yesterday’s parliamentary discussion on the Budget Measures Implementation Bill, opposition spokesperson on financial services Josè Herrera said that the number of homeless people in Malta is expected to top 25,000 within a few years.

Referring to an unspecified study, Dr Herrera said that the current figure of a few hundred homeless people will reach alarming heights unless the government takes “draconian measures” to tackle the present situation.

Dr Herrera said that people on the lower rungs of the social scale cannot even afford to buy subsidised properties. He also pointed out that such people cannot even rent apartments at subsidised rates. Dr Herrera said that although the Housing Authority shouldered the rent of people in need, such people were nonetheless finding it impossible to rent since certain landowners would rather not declare their income from rent and would be forced to do so if they had to deal with the Housing Authority, or if they had to give receipts against which subsidies would be paid.

On his part, Parliamentary Secretary in the Finance Ministry Tonio Fenech tabled an amendment that sanctions a maximum tax of five per cent on earnings from rent, when a landowner leases property to the Housing Authority for a minimum of 10 years. Dr Herrera suggested that the tax cap be applied also in cases of landowners who rent directly to tenants in need, and Dr Fenech replied that the scheme currently applies to properties which are given out by the authority to people on the social-housing list, but may be widened later to include other instances.

Meanwhile, other tax breaks were announced by Mr Fenech. Married couples will benefit from a total of Lm12 million in deductions, with the tax-free ceiling rising by Lm200 to Lm4,500 in the case of joint computations, and by Lm150 to Lm3,250 for tax returns calculated separately. Moreover, parents who send their children to private schools can now deduct up to Lm400 for children in primary schools, and up to Lm600 for children in secondary schools.

Employers who provide child care services for their employees can deduct up to Lm400 per child. Parents who send their children to licensed child care centres can likewise claim up to Lm400 per child. In both cases, receipts have to be produced to the satisfaction of the Commissioner of Inland Revenue.

The words “licensed” and “satisfaction” drew the ire of Labour MP for women’s rights Helena Dalli.

She pointed out that the bill as it stood was useless since there are no licensed child care centres, and when such a law was passed two years ago, and people approached the commissioner with receipts, the latter was not satisfied since none of the centres were licensed and no one got any money back.

Following consultation, Mr Fenech agreed that none of the centres are licensed, but that a process of registration will start in a couple of weeks.

He then amended the bill to allow centres to be either registered or licensed.

Parliament was adjourned to today.