The Malta Labour Party spokesman on social solidarity, Marie-Louise Coleiro-Preca, yesterday accused the government of deceiving people when it said that 30,000 families were exempted from paying the water and electricity surcharge.

In a statement, Mrs Coleiro-Preca said the government should say what the real arrangements were. From vouchers being received by such families, it resulted that families that in the past had been completely exempted from paying the surcharge were now only partially exempted, while families who had now begun receiving such vouchers were also not completely exempted.

The government tried to give the perception of being a government that understood and favoured the needy, but all it amounted to was partisan propaganda that did not reflect reality, she said.

The government should be ashamed for failing to grasp the situation of so many families in difficulty, she added, referring to a recent survey that estimated the number of people living below the poverty line at 60,000.