It’s news to make one feel good. According to the European statistical office Eurostat, the income of employees in Malta and Gozo has recently been increasing at a higher rate than the European average. Which means that our workers have seen their situation improve compared to that of others.
There is a problem though: euro zone member countries operate in free trade mode between them. They have the same national currency and cannot adjust its exchange rate to maximize competitiveness.
In recent years, it has been discovered that the most effective, indeed the only way by which these countries can succeed to retain their competitiveness is by cutting on jobs and the income of workers. This has become a leading social dilemma in the management of all euro countries.
God forbid that improvement in the income of our employees should be halted. But how are we now going to respond to the fact that compared to our “partners” in the euro zone, we shall have beome less competitive?
What should be giving us much satisfaction, could also become a matter of concern.
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PAYE
A wide discussion is proceeding in France regarding a financial reform that has been promised since long years without being implemented. At last, the government is proclaiming it will launch the measure as of next year, even if it is expected to create huge political problems on the eve of the next presidential elections. Many are betting that there will be further postponement.
The reform concerns how income tax is paid. At present, in France, you pay such tax a year in arrears: this year, French citizens are settling their tax dues on income earned last year. Instead, now the proposal is for the tax to be paid as soon as taxpayers receive their salary or other income – the system we know as PAYE, Pay As You Earn.
When you come to think about it: this tax system that the French are still mulling over, has been operational in Malta since the seventies of the previous century. We’re used to considering our country as underdeveloped; but there do exist sectors where we’ve been at the forefront.
Facts show that many of the tough reforms that have sped us forward were actually powered by Labour governments.
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The sorrows of Sliema
Another encouraging titbit of news for Malta’s tourism was that three prime hotels in the St Julian’s area will be levelled to make way for a new hotel of extra class status. This should give further confidence to the Maltese tourism sector.
However it makes sense to consider other aspects about which there has been less debate.
For how long will construction last? For its duration, will there be a reduction in the volume of accommodation available in Maltese hotels?
Most importantly, how is pollution of the sea around the Sliema area going to be controlled while construction proceeds? I well remember the complaints – justified in my view – which Sliema residents used to make, every summer, about the pollution caused by the Port Tomaso project in the sea where they used to swim. Now if there was a project that had high quality and was sensibly implemented, it was Port Tomaso.