Nationalist Party leader Adrian Delia yesterday stressed that he has settled his tax “dispute”, making a distinction from saying that he has settled the full amount owed to the tax authorities.

Delia published his financial affairs through a report put together by Mazark just one day before the PN leadership race. Many have questioned his credibility on speaking out about a wide range of issues when considering he owed €51,924 in taxes and another €34,859 in interest and charges from overdue taxes.

Last week, in a radio interview, Delia had declared “game over” because his “tax arrears” had been resolved.

Apart from alleging that Delia paid the tax authorities €55,000 as part of settling his dispute from PN marathon funds, the Labour Party also alleged that he was lying and that he still owed taxes for 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016.

Asked to comment about this, Delia said:  “I pay my tax from my money. If I had a dispute, I said the ‘dispute’ was resolved in full – so that we do not play with words – then if there is a more recent tax year which needs to be settled it will be settled in due time.”

Delia failed to say concretely that he does or does not have more recent taxes due.

“I was referring to the issue I had raised myself with the pre election financial report [on the radio interview declaring the tax arrears had been solved], this is not something that I was hiding, like they [Labour] are doing, this is something that [revealed] myself, when I said that I had a dispute and I will resolve it. I resolved it, when I resolved, it I paid it. That’s what I said when I was referring to game over.”

In reaction, the Labour Party said that Delia had been constrained to say that his tax dues have not been paid in full.

Delia had tried to give the impression that he had discovered €55,000 cash to pay his dues, but this was not so.

As revealed last Sunday, Delia still has to pay more than what he has already paid.

In the comments given to The Malta Independent, Delia had confirmed that he still has to finish paying up his tax arreaes. He had said that it was game over but it is still game on, the Labour Party said.

He must remember that he is in politics not to play around with words, but to say the whole truth, the PL said.