The Finance Ministry said that in the upcoming budget, measures to improve the cooperation between Customs, VAT and Tax departments will be announced.

The reason behind the move is to create a more intelligent approach to tackle abuseon a risk assessment basis. Speaking to Customs employees on Customs Day last week, Prof. Scicluna said that the world has changed, adn therefore the approach to catch out people who break the law must also change.

He said that as an EU member, Malta is obliged to deal with trade originating in other EU countries with as much attention as if it were local trade. He said that the new approach would be to identify high risk areas of trade and in turn weed out abuse.

Prof Scicluna said: "The world has become very competitive. We need to compete, create jobs and increase economic growth. The Customs Department can help Malta do that."