Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1042376
maltatoday | TUESDAY • 23 OCTOBER 2018 15 BUDGET 2019 SportMalta notifies that the following call for Tenders were published through the Electronic Public Procurement System on www.etenders.gov.mt and are open for submission of offers: Tender for the Construction of Retaining Wall at Cottonera Sports Complex REF: MEDE/MPU/SM/018/2018 Deadline for submission : 31st October 2018 at 09:30 am Tender for the Supply of Chemicals for use in the Treatment of Swimming Pool water at Tal- Qroqq National Pool Complex Ref: MEDE/MPU/SM/016/2018 Deadline for submission : 31st October 2018 at 09:30 am Tender for the Demolition of Existing Bocci Drome and Adjacent Towers at Cottonera Sports Complex Ref: MEDE/MPU/SM/020/2018 Deadline for submission : 7th November 2018 at 09:30 am Tender documents are free of charge. They can only be obtained from the Electronic Public Procurement System at www.etenders.gov.mt. Registration is required in order to submit an offer. Maltese economic operators must be in possession of their organisation e-ID in order to access this website. More information regarding registration is available from the FAQ section of the same website. Public Tenders MASSIMO COSTA THE 2019 Budget does not tackle any of Malta's major problems and shows there is no long-term plan for the country, Adrian Delia said. The Opposition leader said the government had started to admit it had serious problems but failed to adequately address them. In his reaction to Budget 2019, delivered by Finance Minister Edward Scicluna yes- terday evening in Parliament, Delia said the fiscal exercise was "not a game-changer". "It shows no plan in the long- term, but is only a series of cos- metic measures trying to hide the major issues," he said. The Nationalist Party leader emphasised that the govern- ment's model of economic growth was not based on val- ue added but on population growth. "The government's model is based on population growth, something, which in the small- est country in the EU is going to create pressures that are in- escapable," he said, adding it was also a model that had an expiration date. "It's an economic model, the name of which the govern- ment dare not speak, and it can only be sustained if the popu- lation keeps increasing," Delia warned. The economic situation was creating problems such as high rents, people being unable to secure a loan to buy property, cheap labour, inadequate pen- sions, unclean air, traffic and health and education prob- lems, all of which were not ad- dressed, Delia said. "Nowhere in the Budget does it say if this [population-based] vision – if there is a vision – can be sustained, and how and where things can be improved, or what infrastructure related to the roads, health, build- ings... needs to be changed," he stressed. Delia insisted that a model based on population growth will ensure that rental costs and property prices will keep increasing. "When it comes to social housing, the government is re- cycling the information it has been given regarding the build- ing of units, but we haven't seen even one of these built yet," he said. A PN government would guarantee that everyone has a home to stay in, he promised. Delia said he was not im- pressed by the macro-econom- ic figures that showed the debt- to-GDP ratio dropping below 50% next year, insisting that debt in absolute terms would rise from €5.62 billion to €5.66 billion. Budget does not solve any of Malta's problems – Adrian Delia Muscat hails Budget that 'takes from no one and gives to everyone' YANNICK PACE THE government has again succeeded in presenting a Budget that will not take any- thing away from anyone and will be giving everyone some- thing, Joseph Muscat said. The Prime Minister said Budget 2019 showed that its strategy for economic growth and effective wealth distribu- tion were succeeding. "I am proud to be leading a government that, for the second time in this country's history, has come before the nation to tell it what it will be giving, and not what it will be taking," he said, minutes after Edward Scicluna finished de- livering his Budget speech. The Prime Minister said the measure to return a sec- ond public holiday falling on a weekend to workers would help improve the quality of life. Muscat highlighted a num- ber of other measures, in- cluding a fourth consecutive increase in pensions, as well as tax refunds that the coun- try's workers will benefit from over the next 12 months. Other measures include more allowances for those taking care of the elderly as well as those living with a dis- ability. Those who suffered various injustices in the past would also continue to be compensated next year, Mus- cat said. He acknowledged that Mal- ta's economic growth was ac- companied by large increases in property value and an ac- companying increase in the cost of rent. The Budget included an in- crease in rental subsidies, as well as several incentives and schemes to help people buy their own property, he added. On transport, he said gov- ernment was giving all stu- dents free school transport, while also subsidising the commute for Gozitan stu- dents studying in Malta. He said that so much work had gone into the Budget, and so many measures had been included, that Scicluna did not have enough time to mention all of them in his speech. He said there would also be measures aimed at ensuring people who worked in Libya in the past could qualify for a better pension, increases in the in-work benefits, and a stipend for people on social benefits who wish to re-enter the education system. The latter, he said, would be able to keep their benefits while also getting a stipend. Muscat noted that while the government only used 30% of the funds generated from Malta's cash-for-passports scheme, its unofficial policy was to register a surplus with- out this revenue. Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne said the Budget confirmed the government's socialist credentials. "It shows that the Budget can be used as a tool for so- cial justice," he said, adding that nobody could deny that people were better off today than they were in the past. Asked whether the govern- ment could have invested more than €2 million in the increase of Children's allow- ance for the neediest, given the surplus, Muscat said the government believed in tar- geted measures. The measure would help the government achieve its policy objective of having no child in poverty or material dep- ravation that lives in a family where at least one person is in the labour market, Muscat added. Opposition leader Adrian Delia derides government's lack of a long- term plan and says the economy is based on an unsustainable model of population growth