Food catering establishments paid a total of €234.2 million in VAT in 2025, Finance Minister Clyde Caruana said in Parliament.

This, he said, means that the PN's proposal to reduce the VAT rate to 7% for these establishments would reduce the government's VAT income from this sector by around €143 million.

Caruana was responding to a Parliamentary Question posed by PN MP Ivan Bartolo.

Responding to supplementary questions posed by MPs, the Minister said he was surprised by the Opposition Leader's allegation that he called restaurants thieves, saying he never said that.

Regarding the VAT rate reduction proposal by the PN, Caruana said that the association which had come out with the proposal originally had said that their primary aim is for their members to directly benefit from such a reduction, and consumers to benefit "indirectly" from it, arguing that it would be absorbed by restaurants profits. He challenged the Opposition Leader to say exactly how much consumers would, for instance, save on a pizza while eating out under their proposal.