Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1432934
LUKE VELLA NATIONALIST leader Bernard Grech said he does not believe Prime Minister Robert Abela was unaware of the €100 million pen- alty clause in the hospitals agree- ment with Steward Healthcare. In a side letter approved by for- mer minister Konrad Mizzi in Au- gust 2019, government accepted to pay the penalty even if the hos- pitals contract was annulled by the courts. Abela told MaltaToday last week that he only got to know about the agreement after it was signed. "I don't believe Robert Abela, who was a consultant to Joseph Muscat and a colleague of Konrad Mizzi, was not aware of this clause. Should we give him the benefit of the doubt, now he has known for too long that the contract is being breached. He's either incompetent or a liar," Grech said in a phone in- terview on NET FM on Saturday. He also promised that a Nation- alist government will withdraw from the contract that is mired in corruption allegations without paying a single euro. Grech congratulated MEP Rob- erta Metsola for clinching the EPP candidacy for the presidency of the European Parliament. He said the PN had a vision for Malta's EU membership and is once again on the forefront of Malta' s achieve- ments on an international level. Grech called out Abela for saying Metsola worked against the na- tional interests and then refusing to condemn Joseph Muscat's ac- tions that lead to Malta's greylis- ting by the Financial Action Task Force this year. He touched upon the Thursday's floods and called out Ian Borg for blaming it all on climate change. "Ian Borg is trying to take people for a ride. First, he chopped down trees and then won't admit that planning was not carried out well. This is a great failure by Ian Borg." 6 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 28 NOVEMBER 2021 NEWS PUBLIC CONSULTATION Submit your opinion or suggestions on the published document proposing an investment of €167 million. CAP STRATEGIC PLAN 2023-2027 1. Foster a smart, competitive, resilient and diversified agricultural sector ensuring long-term food security; 2. Support and strengthen environmental protection, including biodiversity, and climate action and contribute to achieving the environmental and climate related objectives of the Union, including its commitments under the Paris Agreement; and 3. Strengthen the socio-economic fabric of rural areas. Consultation document may be downloaded from: www.eufunds.gov.mt Send your submissions to : consultationcapsp@gov.mt by the 10th December 2021 Rural Development Programme for Malta 2014-2020 Part financed by the European Union Co-financing Rate: 75% European Union; 25% Government of Malta The European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development: Europe invesƟng in rural areas CAP Strategic Plan for Malta 2023-2027 is a programme co-funded by the European Union KURT SANSONE CONSUMERS are using their bank cards to make more low value purchases from shops, a Central Bank of Malta study shows with transactions hitting €1.2 billion last year. The yearly average value of card transactions dropped from €58 in 2016 to €51 in 2020, showing customers are using cards for smaller value purchases. The popularity of using cards to pay at shops maintained its upward trend with the value of payments transacted in this way increasing by 28% over a four- year period. Card transactions increased from €902.3 million in 2016 to €1.1 billion in 2019 and even more to €1.2 billion in 2020. The study shows that the vol- ume of online transactions in- creased by 6.5% between 2019 and 2020 but the value dropped by almost 7%. The CBM said this reflects the general drop in private con- sumption during the pandemic year but it also indicates that on- line payments are increasingly being used for low value trans- actions. The impact of the pandemic on the tourism sector is also evi- dent in the data for non-resident cards. The upward trend in the vol- ume and value of transactions carried out by non-resident cards until 2019 was interrupted last year. The CBM said transactions fell by almost 50%, while the total value of transactions decreased by around 60%. This reflected the decline in tourist arrivals during 2020 due to COVID-19 restrictions. However, while the consump- tion of non-residents in Malta decreased by around €1.3 bil- lion, the value of POS payments by non-resident cards in Malta decreased by €402.8 million. "The magnitude of the drop in the value of POS payments using these cards was relatively contained when seen against the drop in consumption in Malta. This indicates that many resi- dent non-Maltese workers still use cards issued abroad," the CBM said. Bank cards increasingly used for low value purchases Transactions hit €1.2 billion in 2020 with average spend of €51 Abela is 'incompetent or lying' when claiming ignorance on Steward penalty clause – Grech