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6 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 27 MARCH 2022 OPINION 2 maltatoday EXECUTIVE EDITOR KURT SANSONE ksansone@mediatoday.com.mt Letters to the Editor, MaltaToday, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 E-mail: dailynews@mediatoday.com.mt Letters must be concise, no pen names accepted, include full name and address maltatoday | SUNDAY • 27 OCTOBER 2024 Middle class Malta will be watching Editorial WHEN Clyde Caruana stands up to read the budget speech tomorrow many will be waiting for that part where he explains how income tax bands will be amended. Taxpayers will want to know how much money will be left in their pockets next year when the changes come into force. And with the Prime Minister having de- scribed the promised tax cut as "historic", expectations among middle income earners are high. We are not privy to the changes the Fi- nance Minister will announce but a tax cut of significant proportion cannot come too soon. Certain sections of the middle class that experienced temporary wage cuts or were dependent on the wage supplement during the COVID years, witnessed an erosion of savings in a bid to maintain the same stand- ard of living. In the aftermath of the pan- demic, persistently high inflation ate away at disposable income. This robbed middle income earners of the peace of mind they were expecting after exiting the pandemic. Undoubtedly, the very generous subsidies on fuel, energy, grains and cereals, helped cushion the blow. Indeed, Maltese consum- ers continued to pay stable prices for petrol, diesel and electricity bills. But there was a creeping feeling that the post-2013 feel good factor had long vanished among the middle class. Erosion of incomes was not the only contributing factor for this phenomenon. Multiple corruption cas- es, which exposed the disconnect between those close to the ruling clique and the rest, have left a sour taste that culminated when the full extent of the Vitals hospitals fraud became apparent earlier this year. Corruption is a strange phenomenon – it does not help parties in Opposition to gain much ground and will affect government negatively when everything else starts going bad. At a time when middle income earners have been feeling the strain on their pockets and seeing their lifestyles being challenged, the Vitals case left a disproportionate im- pact on a weary electorate. The government has failed to acknowledge this and it does so at its peril. An income tax cut will not solve all the ills associated with an electorate that is exas- perated with Robert Abela's government but it will go a substantial way in alleviating the financial pressures the middle class has been enduring. It will be a reprieve. Another aspect the budget should address is better support for families with children. This should translate into meaningful assis- tance for today's parents and guardians and serve as an encouragement for prospective parents to start their family. Child rearing should not automatically translate into a fi- nancial burden and yet, for many, it is. Nonetheless, from an economic aspect, each measure Caruana will be announcing on Monday should serve a purpose. Steering the economy into new waters will not hap- pen overnight but the building blocks have to be laid down in the budget. This leader hopes that a plan starts being laid out to slowly ease the country off its dependency on fuel and energy subsidies. The country has so far been able to afford these subsidies and undoubtedly, they have helped to support families and businesses by providing stability at a relatively low price. But the indiscriminate nature with no time- frame for their end creates wasteful attitudes and promotes dependency that can stifle the yearning to seek sustainable solutions. Concurrently, we hope the budget also lays down concrete financial commitments for floating offshore wind and solar ener- gy projects, and battery farms, which are needed to diversify the island's energy mix. On alternative energy, the Energy Ministry must move beyond the study phase towards project development. Domestic alternative energy sources could be one way of keeping electricity prices down. Similarly, the health sector urgently re- quires significant investment in infrastruc- ture but any budget commitments must be based on project plans that have starting and end target dates. The Health Ministry cannot continue to shuffle its way through. Plans that have been announced must be accompanied with identifiable milestones, otherwise they will only be smoke and mir- rors. Energy and health are two areas of national concern as are education, good governance and the rule of law. Middle class Malta will be assessing this government's performance in these areas and making its deliberations in silence. Caruana's speech tomorrow is unlikely to represent some Damascene moment but it could lay out the direction government in- tends to take in the coming years. We only hope that promises made will be kept and projects identified will be delivered. Quote of the Week "Certainly, in the opinion of this Court, the words 'should we go burn the circus?' are not a joke and create legitimate fear among people working in the circus, others working at the victim's establishment, and its patrons." Magistrate Yana Micallef Stafrace when fining an influencer who was reported for posting a video on social media of herself talking to a dog and jokingly asking 'should we go burn the circus?' MaltaToday 10 years ago 26 October 2014 'Tonio Fenech's €25 million offer came five days before voting day' THE former Nationalist government was des- perate to hang on to every vote it could get in the dying days of the 2013 election campaign, to the extent that it hammered out an esti- mated €25 million compensation proposal for the shareholders of the National Bank of Mal- ta (NBOM), just days before election day. Stuck in litigation since 1977 over the shares the shareholders signed over to the State under duress in 1972, the Nationalist administration made a second attempt at se- curing the wavering vote of the NBOM share- holders with an eleventh-hour set- tlement just five days before the electorate went to vote in March last year. Ironically the offer came three years after the government had attempted to get rid of the case by claiming it was time-barred, in a plea filed by the Attorney General's of- fice, on behalf of the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister. The government argued that cases on the rescission of contracts on grounds of violence had to be filed within two years – the main civil case was filed four years after Dom Mintoff's takeover of the bank. According to shareholders' representa- tive Milica Micovic, 67 – a director of B. Tagliaferro and Sons, the largest corporate shareholder of the NBOM – former finance minister Tonio Fenech presented them with a settlement proposal for compensation on March 3, five days before last year's general election. But Micovic has said that there was "no for- mal offer" of €25 million, let alone "a rejection of the alleged offer." ...