The government’s lack of initiative in dealing with environmental issues has been a matter of growing public concern. Indeed, the environment, and the problems associated with it, constitutes a hot potato on the government’s plate. But, an objective analysis of the Maltese economic scene suggests that the government has a veritable plateful of hot potatoes on its lap.

The government’s predicament has its origins in the Fenech Adami money no problem years, when the top priority was the creation of a feel-good climate, favouring the campaign promoting Malta’s EU accession.

The objective was to woo public opinion by steady public spending that created more employment and feather-bedded key public opinion leaders. The government spent well beyond its means, incurring steadily rising debt and a structural deficit. The prevailing political inebriation left no time for husbanding the economy and much less for the exercise of frugality.

Amends for past sins

The moment Malta acceded to the EU, the kissing had to stop. It was the EU that demanded a convergence programme that ushered in an austerity regime which is still ongoing. The convergence programme is meant to make amends for past sins of omission and commission, and to make it possible for the government to sanitize its finances.

This exercise involves more austerity, as well as resolute policies to give sinews to the Maltese economy. It calls for measures to attract more investment, to create more employment openings, to stimulate foreign earnings and so on. It means making good for past inertia. It means incentivising the workforce rather than squeezing it, and, as far as possible, increasing government revenue out of increases in the nation’s wealth, rather than eroding it through more taxation.

The incumbent administration has been overtaken by inertia and struck by paralysis with regards to new initiatives in this regard. And when it resorted to tax measures, it opted for indirect taxation, which affected the rich and the poor in equal measure.

Possible Initiatives

Only last week, a government guru – Mr Lawrence Zammit – rattled out a list of possible initiatives which could be taken, to tap new revenue sources without breaking the spine of the economy.(The Times, June 16)

His menu incorporated a range of items from which to select: such as ” a significantly larger road tax for road vehicles whose engine exceeds a certain size; a tax for dwellings that have a swimming pool or that exceed a certain size; an increased charge for using the moorings provided at the yacht marinas; a windfall tax on the sale of land or properties situated in the areas that have just been included in the development zones; an increased fee for entertainment outlets that remain open beyond a certain time of day”

Here is an expert talking aloud, reflecting a social conscience with a feel for the plight of the overtaxed common citizen, and zeroes in on the citizen who had had it good for the past twenty years.

The question that arises is why these proposals are being advanced so late in the day. Aren’t these late afterthoughts? Why have the well-to-do, who have basked merrily in the sunshine of ostentatious expenditure, been allowed to go scot-free for so many years?

Mr. Zammit exhibited his list of possible initiatives open to the government, in support of his theory that local environment problems should be discussed in economic terms. The environment is only a slice from the economic milieu.

It’s time for the government to start looking at the full picture. It’s time to shake off the inertia. It’s time to wake up and move forward.

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