Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1541063
them more efficient; not squan- dering public funds due to gross mismanagement; and eradicating corruption. Also, recovering the millions of euro stolen from the people by transferring state property to businesses at miserly rates and paying at least €400 million to shady people to supposedly run the state hospitals. The decrease in income tax will increase the spending power of people which in turn will result in an increase in consumption and VAT revenues. NI contributions The cost of NI contributions paid is taxing low wage earners a great deal. As things stand, a person born after January 1962 and who earns more than €28,303 per annum, pays the highest rate of National Insurance contributions. In the case of a self-employed individ- ual the weekly NI is €81.64 or €4,245.28 per annum. In the case of an employed person the rate is €108.86 per week, but is shared equally between the employee and the employer—each pay €54.43 per week. Is it right that a person who earns just €28,303 should pay NI equiva- lent to that paid by someone who earns €50,000, or even €100,000 a year? The disposable income of a self-employed individual, who at the end of 2025 will earn a net profit of €28,303 will tot up to €20,382 after income tax and NI are deducted. This means that nearly one third of the net profit, or rather 28%, is paid to the state. As things stand, the existing in- come tax rate and NI due do not encourage people to work on a self-employed basis. It is evident that a self-employed person earning a net profit of €28,303 will never be in a position to purchase property, let alone to re-invest in their business. Charge NI contribution to profit and loss account Today, a self-employed individ- ual is not allowed to charge NI contributions as an expense in the profit and loss account. I suggest that as from Basis Year 2026, a self-employed individual will be allowed to declare NI contribu- tions as an expense. This measure will help to decrease the burden of the cost of NI contributions paid by such an individual. Overall savings that will be made by a self-employed individual ac- cording to the new tax rates I am proposing and allowing NI con- tributions to be expensed will be significant. The decrease in the tax charge and the easing in the burden of the NI paid will result in a cash in- jection that will encourage people to work on a self-employed basis. I strongly believe that the gov- ernment must have the courage to carry out these changes, which are absolutely necessary to help peo- ple deal with the stiff and unprec- edented increases in the overall cost of living. People do not want alimony. People want rights. People do not want to be led by the nose, but they want the freedom and finan- cial stability to determine their own living and future. THE International Court of Arbitration, op- erated by the International Chamber of Com- merce (ICC), rejected on Monday Steward Health Care's claim that it was owed €148 million by the Maltese government. The ar- bitration centre also ruled that the Maltese government owed Steward €5 million—the balance left between services rendered by Steward and services paid for by the Maltese State. Like everyone else in the country, Malta- Today is not privy to the judgment. The only people who know what the judgment contains are a select few in government. What we know so far is based solely on what the Maltese government chose to say after it received the ruling on Monday. The judgment is not public—such rulings by the ICC tribu- nal are not automatically public—although Prime Minister Robert Abela has committed to publish it once lawyers give him the clear- ance. Publication of the judgment is in the public interest. It is crucial that people have all the information at hand when deciding who to believe, what to believe and whether Malta was dealt a fair deal by the ruling. At this stage any further comment on the judgment itself will be worthless since we do not know what it contains. Within this context it was pre- mature for Labour MEP Alex Agius Saliba to write to MEPs to inform them of the outcome of the arbitration, unless he was granted priv- ileged access to the ruling by the Office of the Prime Minister. But there is one thing that the ICC judgment will never alter and that is the political respon- sibility the Labour Party has to shoulder for the hospitals mess. It remains a fact, irrespective of what the ICC decided, that Gozo has remained without a state-of-the-art hospital, and St Luke's and Karin Grech hospitals are today in the same sorry state they were when the government awarded the concession to Vitals 10 years ago. It remains a fact that in August 2019, then minister Konrad Mizzi, with the full knowl- edge of Keith Schembri and Joseph Muscat, but behind Cabinet's back, entered into a side agreement with Steward that obliged the gov- ernment to pay the company €100 million if the contract was rescinded by the courts. It was on the strength of this agreement that Steward filed a compensation claim with the ICC. Thankfully, we were told by the prime minister that Steward's claim for €148 mil- lion was rejected by the ICC. Nonetheless, the truth is that had there not been collusion be- tween senior Labour government officials and Steward back then, the Maltese state would have been spared the hassle of arbitration proceedings. It remains a fact that when the concession was awarded to Vitals Global Healthcare at the end of 2015, the process was vitiated from the get go—a "predetermined" deal, the Na- tional Audit Office described it in one of its three detailed investigations. It remains a fact that several politicians, in- cluding former prime minister Joseph Muscat and Konrad Mizzi, and several high-ranking former public officials and businesspersons are facing serious criminal charges of corrup- tion, fraud and money laundering in connec- tion with the hospitals concession. It remains a fact that what was supposed to be a flagship project of the Muscat adminis- tration ended up being a flagship fiasco that left the country's public healthcare system in the lurch. It remains a fact that Malta's Court of Appeal confirmed the termination of the hospitals contract and the judges made no attempt to sugar-coat their disgust at the government's collusion with Vitals/Steward, in violation of its duties to the country and the electorate. We quote from Appeals Court ruling: "We have seen that the granting of the concession to the appellant companies was not the result of deceit by either party, but the result of col- lusion between the two parties, which hap- pened not only when the appellant companies were selected as the preferred bidder after being given access to privileged information, and when the concession was granted when it was known to be unachievable, but also when the agreement was supposed to have been carried out, although nothing happened, the persons meant to protect the nation's in- terests, instead of protecting those interests, gave extension after extension to avoid what was in fact a one-page agreement, instead of 'the real deal' becoming public and continued to pay millions of euros to the appellant com- panies, although these were not fulfilling their contractual obligations." These are facts that cannot be ignored; sup- pressed or forgotten. The ICC victory, as gov- ernment is calling it, does not absolve Labour from the sins it committed. Instead of eu- phoria we would rather see the Labour Party atone for its mistakes. ICC judgment does not absolve Labour from its sins maltatoday MaltaToday, MediaToday Co. Ltd, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 MANAGING EDITOR: SAVIOUR BALZAN EXECUTIVE EDITOR: KURT SANSONE EDITOR: PAUL COCKS Tel: (356) 21 382741-3, 21 382745-6 Website: www.maltatoday.com.mt E-mail: dailynews@mediatoday.com.mt earners 11 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 5 NOVEMBER 2025 EDITORIAL Gross salary Present tax charge Proposed tax charge Saving €20,000 €1,600 €0 €1,600 €35,000 €5,350 €2,250 €3,100 €50,000 €9,100 €5,250 €3,850 €75,000 €16,850 €11,500 €5,350 €85,000 €20,350 €15,000 €5,350 Table 4: Tax savings for person on Single Rate I dare say that the state is robbing low wage earners. The increase in the cost of property and rental costs is seriously driving people into poverty.