The prime minister is obviously tripping over his own figures if Labour deputy leader Charles Mangion is proved correct.

Dr Mangion, the MLP’s finance spokesman, said that Lawrence Gonzi last Sunday declared that the Labour Party’s proposals to put more money into people’s pockets would cost Lm115 million, a figure drummed up by Bondi+ presenter Lou Bondi earlier this month. And as far as the Labour Party is concerned, Mr Bondi’s credibility has been torn to shreds.

But in adopting those figures as his own, Dr Gonzi had turned his own estimates on their head, though they were presented in his budget speech only last month, Dr Mangion said.

Quoting the budget speech, Dr Mangion said Dr Gonzi wanted to ensure that overtime would not be taxed at more than 15 per cent. According to Dr Gonzi’s budget speech, of the declared overtime earnings of Lm12 million, some Lm1.5 million were still being taxed at 25 per cent, so the tax band was being extended to tax overtime at 15 per cent, as far as was possible.

But now, just one month after saying that declared overtime income amounted to Lm12 million, the prime minister said that Labour’s proposals to exempt overtime earnings from tax would mean a loss to the government of Lm30 million. Dr Mangion said this was a fiscal tale and a highly irresponsible declaration.

In fact, going by the Prime Minister’s budget estimates for next year, exempting overtime earnings from income tax would cost less than Lm2 million. Dr Mangion said the prime minister should decide which were right – his budget figures or those he quoted last Sunday at Birkirkara.

The prime minister, Dr Mangion added, was also awfully wrong in accepting that subsidising interest rates for first time home buyers, as Labour was proposing, would cost Lm60 million a year. Dr Gonzi should explain this confusing estimate because the Central Bank’s three-monthly reviews showed that the prime minister’s estimate was false.

The prime minister was also confused over Labour’s other proposals, Dr Mangion said. Those proposals aimed to ease the burden families faced, he said. They would help families, help economic expansion and improve everyone’s quality of life.