The PN's spokesperson for Finance Graham Bencini said that while the budget for 2025 had its positives, the announced tax cuts will not affect anyone's life dramatically.

Speaking to The Malta Independent on Sunday, Bencini expressed mixed feelings about Budget 2025, which was announced last Monday, acknowledging both positives, as well as its shortcomings.

While he said that the PN is certainly in favour of tax cuts and social benefits, he argued that the budget fell short of the high expectations set by Prime Minister Robert Abela in the weeks ahead of the budget speech.

"Although we are praising the tax cuts, they are not going to affect people's lives," Bencini emphasised.

He explained that the reduction, averaging €300 to €600 annually, translates to only €30 to €60 per month. "This is not going to affect anyone's life dramatically," he noted, a point echoed by experts in the field.

Bencini criticised the budget for neglecting critical issues impacting people's daily life.

"What needed addressing - traffic, overpopulation, unsustainable construction, environmental degradation, drainage problems, electricity grid strain and pressure on hospitals - was completely ignored," he said.

Despite strong economic indicators "on paper", he argued that people's quality of life has been deteriorating, and it is not being reflected in people's everyday lives.

"The quality of life has been going down at an alarming rate, year on year," Bencini said, citing independent international organisations who have said so, which are totally independent from Malta's political environment.

A major flaw, Bencini claimed, is the lack of a clear economic vision. "The budget failed to address the direction our country is heading," he said.

He criticised the government's reliance on an economic model focused on numbers, unsuitable for Malta's space constraints.

"We have to shift to a model of quality, as the budget's title suggests, but this hasn't been mentioned," Bencini said.

He questioned the government's commitment, referring to the sudden disappearance of Vision 2031 from online portals and the government's narrative, and its replacement with vague promises of a Vision 2050.

Bencini called for an explanation as to whatever happened to the government's 2021-2031 Vision, which was launched a couple of years ago.

"If the government truly focused on quality over quantity, it must explain what happened to the Vision 2031 economic vision documents," he argued.

He questioned the government's credibility, saying that there are also several promises the government has not kept from previous budgets.

Bencini also raised doubts about the government's plan to manage overpopulation.

Despite talk of a quality-focused economic model, Bencini said that a line item in the budget estimates, presented last Monday, forecast an increase in social security contributions, indicating a growing workforce.

Bencini said that the number of social security contributions the government is going to collect by 2027 will grow by approximately €115m every year.

"Calculations I made, which are purely approximate, by taking an approximate National Insurance (NI) rate, show that the government aims to increase the workforce by 25,000 to 35,000 people per year," he claimed, undermining the government's rhetoric about quality over quantity.

He linked this to Finance Minister Clyde Caruana's previous statement about Malta's population potentially reaching 800,000 by 2040 if Malta's economy continues going down this route.

"It seems that we are on track to keep growing our population," Bencini said, highlighting the inconsistency between the government statements and actions.

On the government's portrayal of tax cuts as "historic", Bencini dismissed the claim.

"Even professionals say these cuts are not historic, despite being positive," he said, referencing a Times of Malta report where a payroll specialist said that although the tax band revision was long-awaited, one has to realise that there is "nothing exceptional" about this revision.

He urged the government to be transparent, and to "stop trying to fool people, as the Prime Minister has been doing for the last weeks".

"We have to stop fooling people and speak factually, tell people the truth," he said.

When asked if tax cuts would affect productivity, Bencini said that the announced tax cuts are not substantial enough to have any real effect, while clarifying he was not criticising the tax relief itself.

Responding to the government claims about decreasing deficit levels and being well below the EU threshold, Bencini warned of the growing national debt.

He acknowledged Malta's compliance with EU regulations but found it troubling that debt continues to rise.

"When you have a debt amount of over €10 billion, projected to grow to €13.5 billion by 2027, that is very alarming," he said. At this rate, annual interest payments would reach €390m or over €1m daily, Bencini said.

"Debt must be repaid at some point," Bencini stressed, noting that the government borrows either out of necessity or to invest.

"The government is not tackling this debt which it is creating. It is using this debt to finance its unsustainable recurrent expenditure," Bencini said.

He criticised the current administration for using debt to fund unsustainable recurrent expenditures rather than investments.

"The government must get its finances in order and stop excessive spending, as well as stop financing projects which are going over budget by many millions," Bencini said.

He cited a garden project originally budgeted at €20m that ended up costing €80m.

"This is unheard of, that one exceeds a budget for a project by €60m," Bencini said.

The PN's stance, he concluded, is that economic growth must be accompanied by responsible debt management and improved quality of life. "Instead, the reverse is happening," he warned.