The myriad announcements which made up the Budget Speech yesterday make up a complex, varied panoply addressing the national economy.

One must therefore take a step back to assess the bold lines of the Budget in its essential overall features and work back from there.

Essentially, the government is forsaking some €100 million in revenue: implementing the last tranche of the PN commitment to cut the top Income Tax rate from 33% to 25% (this year will see the steepest cut from 29% to 25%) estimated at around €20 million; and forsaking some €60 million in expenditure so that Malta goes from a deficit of 2.1% to one of 1.6%. With other measures, this means that the government will be spending €100 million less. Plus the country must fork out €40 million for Air Malta.

To compensate for that, the government yesterday announced multiple changes in indirect taxation which will yield it some €200 million more.

These measures include the increase in prices of packets of cigarettes, the 20c a litre excise tax on wine, both local and foreign, the change in excise duty on petrol and diesel whose pump prices will decrease by 1c and 2c a litre respectively, the €10 to €15 increase in car licences (except for the small cars), the new charge on cranes on the streets, the 1% increase in excise duties on cellular phones, the 15% increase in swimming pool licences, the very welcome 10c per kg charge on fodder for fish farms, the 1% increase on insurance policies (except life).

Then the government announced a raft of other measures that do more than a spot of welcome housekeeping, tidying up areas where abuse has crept in.

Hence the removal of eco contribution, and its substitution by excise duties. Eco tax is a national tax in EU countries but it was being skewed by purchase done on the internet and frankly through the burgeoning trade from Sicily. The launching of the local Guardia di Finanza, integrating the Revenue Security Corps, aims to ensure better policing this side of the free market.

Then there is the huge reform of the social area, removing some well-known cases of abuse. Thus the blanket reform of under-23 years old unemployed who lose benefits if they refuse to attend training; the perhaps more draconian measure addressing under-23 year olds single mothers who now must attend training when their child is 1 year old or lose benefits; the incentive costing €9 million or €400 per child for the first three children of single mothers; the change or rebalancing of what single mothers can get from fulltime or part-time work and what they lose out from their benefits; plus other changes eg in the way companies pay for pregnancy leave; and very welcome changes to address the 17,000 cases of people who did not pay enough NI stamps to qualify for a full pension, etc. The Community Work Scheme is being scrapped because it was built on precarious work and instead replaced by a different scheme, suggested by UHM. Registering for work will be trimmed: depending on what one applies for, and a skills match introduced. And people with disabilities will get better opportunities through the implementation of a 1967 law that was never implemented.

To this one must add the special bonus of a one-time €35 payment to those who do not qualify for a reduction in income tax. This is apart from the meagre COLA increase of €0.58 cents.

Another housekeeping change regards that of the Capital Gains Tax, introduced by the PN in 2006 at 12% and changed thereafter. According to the government this introduced widespread abuse and some high-grade building blocks never paid an euro in tax. Hence it will become a Final Withholding Tax, including promises of sale still to be made as long as the final contract is made by 30 June 2015.

This can also be called the PPP Budget from the many PPP initiatives that have been announced: thus PPP for the Mediterranean Film Studio, another for one or two breakwaters at Marsamxett, a PPP for St Luke's Hospital, a PPP for road embellishment, a PPP for a hotel in Bighi, a PPP (as announced by our sister Sunday paper) for the Cospicua health centre (with its services remaining free), a PPP for a bailiff system at the Law Courts.

Other innovations announced by the Budget Speech include: cruise liners can open up their casinos if they spend the night in Malta; Medical Plus, a government company which will enable doctors to operate in twilight hours on patients; public transport will begin on 1 January but not with a big bang but operated jointly between government and the chosen operator; a Uber-like innovation to encourage car pooling.

The publication, along with the Budget, of a Report on the Implementation of Budget 2014 shows how much has been implemented, as well as constant reminder how much has been implemented of the Electoral Programme.