I am all in favour of offering all possible assistance to self-employed people, but this assistance does not extend to allowing them to keep for themselves money that their customers have been charged in VAT and which they are then required to pass on to the government. It is not their money. They have not earned it. So I, like Opposition Leader Joseph Muscat, consider it scandalous that 120 people have been sent to prison for not passing on VAT payments (TMID, 21 May) but not for the same reason. I think it is scandalous that so many people have been found guilty of what is a truly anti-social offence and I think Mr Muscat’s comments are very ill-advised.

VAT is a government-imposed tax on the consumer. It is not a donation to the cash flow of the supplier of the goods or service on which it has been levied and I really object to it being used as such.

J. Falzon

MELLIEHA