Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said that he does not “buy” Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s justification to accept a 35,000 euro allowance for using his private car.

Earlier this week, Dr Muscat fended off criticism following his decision to renounce to an official car, and get €7,000 a year in return for using his private vehicle. Dr Muscat said that upon taking office he was asked which car he would like to buy, since the BMW Series 7 used by his predecessor was not worth repairing as its maintenance costs were prohibitive and close to €60,000 a year.

Dr Muscat said initial estimates showed that a new car would cost tens of thousands of euros. In view of this he opted to keep using his private car, as this costs half the money to hire a car. “Then end result is that we saved taxpayers’ money,” he said.

Dr Busuttil said that apart from the fact that it is unbecoming for a Prime Minister to use his personal car in his official capacity, he should certainly not be rewarded financially if he chooses to do so.

“I would have thought that, ethically, Dr Muscat should have led by example; I, myself am entitled to a car allowance as Leader of the Opposition but I will not accept it and will opt  to use an official parliamentary car instead,” Dr Busuttil said.