Exactly a week ago, the budget for 2010 was announced. Nothing came as a surprise and after months of discussions as well as speculation the outcome was almost as forecasted. Some years ago the predecessor of the current Prime Minister said that he wants the day of the budget to be just like any other day. I do not know what his intentions were yet I do not agree with this statement. I do not agree for two reasons mainly. The first one is that what is decided in the budget and even what is left out has an impact on our everyday life. The second reason is that by that statement he was also implying that whatever is said in the budget speech does not count and we all know examples of taxes and other decisions which were taken outside of the budget.

This administration seems not to agree either with what Fenech Adami said about the budget. The media plays an important role in this and the Minister was interviewed before and after the budget for a number of days. The hype built around the budget speech and the promotion given showed that it is important. Hopefully what was announced in the budget speech will be implemented for the benefit of all.

However, the Nationalist government is always ready with an excuse. The government seems not to be responsible for what happens when the news are bad. On the contrary, when the news are positive, the government wants to take credit. A victory has many fathers but defeat is an orphan. In this year's budget speech, which I consider to be as a very political speech, excuses can be found along the 85-point-long speech, be it for why the deficit increased, or why the economy became smaller and a number of other issues.

A very important issue is the water and electricity tariffs. In my opinion this was the real budget and families are more concerned about this issue first and foremost. But until now we do not know what the new tariffs are going to be. All that we know is that these are going to increase. When the Prime Minister was asked why the new tariffs proposed by the government were not announced, the excuse was that the Resources Authority did not want to publish them to be in a better position to decide on whether to accept them or not. But what was the government's opinion? Did the government want to make public its intentions for the water and electricity tariffs? However, I am preoccupied that one of the reasons that the MRA asked the government not to publish the tariffs was to be in a position to oppose these tariffs if they feel that these need to be opposed. If this is the case I think we should change the people in the Authority since they do not have the guts to override the government's decision. I believe that if they cannot do it publicly they will not do it internally, although now they will be in a position to tell us that the tariffs were revised but in actual fact we will not be in a position to compare.

This was an excellent excuse by the government since it did not want to announce the tariffs neither before nor just after the budget speech, since the tariffs are going to be much worse than the budget speech itself, at least for the time being.

However the government must realise that this fact created a lot of uncertainty for families, the industry and the commercial sector. The projections and prices for next year are already in place for the Maltese industry especially those which are export oriented. So when the new tariffs are announced they will try to mitigate for these but it will be very difficult. This government is very capable of finding excuses but not solutions. After all, the Nationalist government is part of the problem; so how can it be part of the solution?

Xarabank

This is one of the occasions when I am writing something about a particular programme. I must say that usually I do not watch Xarabank but last Friday I watched the last part of this programme which was supposedly discussing the budget. I am saying ‘supposedly’ since, at a certain point in time, the so-called independent presenter allowed and, more than this, invited the Minister to take opportunity of being present for the programme to ‘clear’ the cases that hit the news where the Minister for Finance was concerned. I am not going to comment on the merit of these cases: it is not my scope and intention.

But I would like to comment on how Xarabank has become an advertising agency for the PN and the government and is also serving as a propaganda machine and part of a damage control exercise to the Nationalist Party and the government. In my opinion, this is very worrying in our democracy.

I also think that the Broadcasting Authority should seriously look into the matter and take action. Those who are experts in the media can understand what I am trying to say much more. Programmes need to be balanced, especially if they are aired on the national television station. I hope that something is done regarding this issue and problems do not continue to be swept under the carpet.

Carmelo Abela

Deputy Speaker &

Labour main spokesperson for industry and foreign investment

Email: [email protected]