A new Labour government after the next general elections would commit itself to decreasing the pressures caused by the rising cost of living and the taxes being levied on Maltese families, Malta Labour Party (MLP) leader Alfred Sant said yesterday.
Dr Sant was speaking at an MLP activity in Gozo on the theme: Plan for a New Change – A Development Plan for Gozo as a Region.
While the government was stating that the country’s cost of living was not an issue of concern, Dr Sant yesterday said such statements were based on consumer price indices that indicated Malta had the lowest inflation rate in Europe.
But, Dr Sant remarked, such claims simply fail to add up when one looks at today’s prices of medicines, food and education – all of which he said were clearly on the rise.
Referring to a recent UHM study, carried out on consumer prices with a view to establishing trends in the lead-up to Malta’s euro adoption, Dr Sant observed how the exercise had uncovered widespread price hikes of between five and 20 per cent on products such as medicines and food.
While acknowledging the fact that most of the hikes resulted from imported inflation caused by developments such as those in international cereal markets, Dr Sant postulated that even if one-third of such price hikes were derived from the Maltese market, one should be asking the government what it is doing about the situation.
Dr Sant added that while the government is being seen entering into agreements with importers with a view to curtailing pricing abuses, such agreements were being made after the price hikes had already made their way into the market.
Commenting on the MLP’s pledge to halving the surcharge on water and electricity consumption if elected, Dr Sant observed how the government had been asking where the MLP proposed funding such a move. But now that a general election was drawing nearer, the government itself was pledging a 30 percent cut to the surcharge.
“The Labour Party does not want to reduce the surcharge simply because an election is coming, but rather because it wants to reduce the burdens on Malta’s families,” Dr Sant remarked.
A new MLP government would also require regulators of each sector to publish a twice-yearly report on fluctuations on items such as food, medicines and educational services, which would be made available to both the government and the opposition. A new Labour government, he said, would take action to ensure prices remain stable.
Should the MLP be elected, Dr Sant said the party would also institute a zero tolerance policy on corruption, adding the country needs an honest leadership of the sort only Labour could provide.
Turning to the issue of the day, Gozo, Dr Sant said that Gozitans were being treated as second-class citizens under the current government and that a new MLP government would handle the island in a first class fashion.
Gozo, he said, has human and natural resources second to none and that the MLP firmly believes in the island’s potential as a region. In terns of tourism, Dr Sant said the MLP’s plan for the country included raising tourist arrival numbers to 1.6 million per year – a good portion of which would be directed toward Gozo.
Dr Sant pledged that the MLP would, if elected to power, it would increase the island’s tourism facilities – including the development of yacht marinas in Gozo.
Also speaking yesterday, MLP deputy leader Charles Mangion said that if the economy was doing as well as the government said it was, the MLP would expect the forthcoming budget to help the families of Malta and Gozo to better their financial positions.
He added that the people were looking for a change not only because they were tired of the current government but rather because they were convinced the MLP could offer the country a far better leadership than the leadership of the day.