PN MP Kristy Debono urged the government to make up for the planned meagre €0.58c cost of living increase by finding a counter balance during the budget, which is to be announced on Monday.

She was speaking during a news conference held this morning at the PN headquarters in Pieta, along with PN MP Stephen Spiteri.

Ms Debono said that the government also needed to tackle the traffic and public transport problems that have arisen and which are leaving a negative impact on the economy by heavily investing in projects to ease traffic and improving the transport service. She said that foreigners are also complaining that they are always late for meetings when in Malta due to the traffic problems.

"Traffic is not during the rush hour only but throughout the day," she lamented.

Turning to the prices of fuel, Ms Debono said that prices should reflect international prices.

Quoting an excerpt from an interview with UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne published in Britain's The Sunday Times newspaper, where he was quoted saying that now that the prices of oil have fallen we expect this to be passed on to the people when filling their cars at petrol stations, she said Maltese and Gozitans are now paying 25 euros for 17 litres petrol, contrary to 2010 when one paid slightly more than 19 euros for the same amount of litres in petrol.

On the Kappara junction project, she said that it is worrying to learn that there were no alternative routes planned for vehicles to pass through once the project kicks off. The Malta Independent today reported that there is little or no indication of the arrangements that will be made to reduce the havoc such a major project is set to cause.

Ms Debono also called on the government to emerge with tax incentives for businesses while also highlighting that the tax burden needs to be reduced for employees so as to boost spending power and for employees to have a better quality life by having more cash in their pockets.

Mr Spiteri meanwhile said that the childcare incentive was not leading to mothers finding adequate jobs, it was more like they were finding precarious jobs, despite the government's pre electoral pledge that it would curb on such working conditions once elected to power.

He said that although Malta is rated the third country in Europe with the least unemployment, this, he added, came about as a result of the government engaging workers in the public sector, implying that the government is concealing the unemployment rate by engaging persons in the public sector.

He said it is vital the government emerges with preferential tax schemes to encourage the private sector to invest in workers. He said that Malta has registered low productivity levels and a decrease in exports. These issues, he said, also need to be addressed.