Finance Minister Tonio Fenech read out his government’s Budget Speech in Parliament last night, without knowing whether the measures he was announcing would be approved by a fractious House where the government has long lost its majority support.

Even before the minister began reading his speech, he was the target of attacks in the House. Joe Mizzi, from the Opposition Labour Party, wanted a reply there and then by the minister, who was not yet in the House, regarding an accusation leveled some years back at Enemalta workers because of a widespread power failure on Good Friday. The minister has charged sabotage but Mr Mizzi hinted a report had found the fault was no sabotage.

Then, at the beginning of the sitting proper, government maverick Member Franco Debono raised a breach of privilege claim against Mr Fenech himself over remarks Mr Fenech made on television the previous day. Dr Debono also claimed he had received a death threat.

The Budget Speech itself was then read out by Mr Fenech taking him more than two hours to plough through. (A synthetic report can be found on pages 2 to 7. Comment: Leader on pg 12).

As is usual in the Budget Speech, Mr Fenech began by giving a general picture of the Maltese economy in the past year and forecasting the economy over the next year.

The Budget Speech title, Responsible Choice, looked more like an electioneering slogan. Mr Fenech pointed out that Malta was one of the few countries in the eurozone that has escaped the rigours of recession and austerity that other countries are suffering from. Malta can look forward to a growth rate of 1.2% next year while the EU is only looking forward to a negative 0.4% rate.

Over the entire speech, Mr Fenech announced only three tax increases:

-          a 2c increase per litre in diesel and petrol;

-          a 6% increase in tax on cigarettes, which works out at an average extra 30c per packet; and

-          an extra €5 per ton on Excise Duty paid on cement.

But in compensation, Mr Fenech could announce the beginning of the implementation of the government’s 2008 electoral promise to reduce income tax rates.

The top rate of income tax is being decreased from 35% to 25% over the next three years: to 32% as from next year; to 29% in 2014 and to 25% by 2015. This measure will not apply to those earning above a certain threshold.

Otherwise, the minister announced a continuation and an extension of current government schemes, most notably those in conjunction with ETC which have been so successful to generate jobs, get unemployed people into training courses and enable SME’s employ people and get paid for it.

As for tourism, the current schemes which have brought more tourists to Malta will be extended and Malta stands to get more tourist attractions such as the Qawra acquarium. The government also announced new schemes to open up hotel opportunities in the historic cities.

As to capital projects, the government announced a maritime enterprise area at the former Malta Shipbuilding area and an aviation logistics area at the former Air Malta land near the airport.

One of this government’s signal successes has been in education, with the extension of the student stipend system and the construction of new schools. MCAST’s new campus is under construction and ITS will follow suit.

As regards energy and the environment, the Speech announced a continuation and an extension of the feed-in tariffs for PVs and a restructured car registration scheme to promote the importation of new cars and discourage the importation of used cars.

It was remarkable that the Budget Speech pounced on the approval by the House in recent days of IVF and announced the roll-out of government help in this regard.

With 11,000 pensioners taking up the offer, in recent years, to continue working and not lose pensions, the Budget Speech reiterated that pensioners get the full COLA increase once again and announced more adjustments of the pension schemes, especially that of women who for some years were actually prohibited from working while they were married.

All this, while the minister was reading his speech, was offset by an announcement that the price of gas cylinders is being raised once again, to €20.60 for a 12kg cylinder and €25.80 for a 15kg cylinder.