Many have agreed that PN leader Simon Busuttil’s reply to the budget speech has been his best in parliament to date. Many also found it refreshing to hear the opposition leader say that the budget was good.

But then he went on to describe it as being “dishonest” and that it “hid the ugly truths”.

Let us begin from here. The budget was a good one, and assuming that the government’s calculations are correct, it will see the country close the year with a smaller deficit than the EU is predicting. That, of course, remains to be seen in time, but let us go with the government’s calculations. Dr Busuttil, in his reply, said that the Labour Party’s manifest promised not to increase taxes. But he went on to make an assertion that the government was set to pocket €170 million from taxes – which amounts to about €400 per person.

When Dr Busuttil was challenged about the figures in a press conference following his speech, he said that he and his team had made the calculations carefully, but that he could not find the paper where the workings were displayed. Fine, let us give him the benefit of the doubt. But one would expect that in the wake of it all, the PN would either give a press conference about it and explain the workings, or at least issue a press release. As it stands, the PN has bandied about a figure, and no one really knows where it came from.

On the other hand, the Government – while presenting a good budget – has also been found somewhat lacking in giving backup information on measures that were announced. Car registration, for example, is one of them. No one really seems to know exactly how much extra they will be paying in car tax next year. Another example that springs to mind is Gozo. The only clear reference this publishing house found about Gozo was a pilot street lighting project. The rest was very ambiguous. Of course, it is all very new to everyone, and everyone has their own style of doing things. Budget 2013, as presented by Finance Minister Edward Scicluna, was (as was always announced) just a slightly tweaked version of the one that saw the previous PN administration lose its majority in parliament.

This year, it was drafted completely from scratch by the PL government and was obviously presented by Profs. Scicluna, who differs in his approach from his predecessor Tonio Fenech.

Dr Busuttil, has only been leader of the party since early May. When one factors in that silly season set in very early this year, and that the PN was more focused on its financial woes than doing politics, it is understandable that Dr Busuttil is still on a learning curve.

We do not mean that both the government and the opposition are not being transparent, what we are saying is that both sides need to give more explanation to the budget (and in the case of the PN, the reaction). The government has organised press conferences to do that, and we expect that the PN will in the future. With any luck, today should see the start of the process in which the budget vote estimates are discussed.