It might interest those who today are crying “Foul” about the Panama Papers scandal, to know what happened as soon as the PN won the 1987 general election.

After Labour won the election in 1971, one of the most radical reforms carried out to try and tackle tax evasion – not avoidance – was the annual publication of the income declaration of each taxpayer in Malta and Gozo. We used to note that many members of the professions and other self-employed declared an income of a few thousand Maltese liri, at most, say Lm2,000. Of course, this resulted in the creation of income thresholds for the various sectors of self-employed taxpayers.

One of the very first political decisions taken by the incoming PN government by then Minister of Finance George Bonello du Puis was to stop the publication of the taxpayers’ income declarations! So you see, transparency has never been something which the PN truly believes in. They only talk about it!

 

Eddy Privitera

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