Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/410228
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 5 NOVEMBER 2014 News 24 Vulnerable children's Christmas dreams can come true this year thanks to new campaign TIM DIACONO CHILDREN living in poverty will be able to receive the present of their dreams this Christmas thanks to a 'Children's Dreams' campaign being run again this year. "Through this campaign, vulner- able children will be able to tell their social workers what present they would like for Christmas," Social Solidarity Minister Michael Far- rugia explained at the campaign's launch. "The social workers will upload the children's present requests onto a website, along with a small message, while keeping their names anonymous. People will be able to buy these children their presents and send them to their respective social workers. The social workers will then pass them on to the children's parents for them to give to their children for Christmas." Farrugia encouraged people to visit the website and help these vul- nerable children get the Christmas presents they desire. "Children who are needlessly suf- fering will be able to speak about their Christmas presents with their friends," Farrugia said. "Many of the requests are very simple ones. Some children are just after a small Spi- derMan toy and their first ever Mc- Donalds meal." The campaign was the brainchild of Lina Pecorella, a Lithuanian activ- ist living in Malta who felt inspired by a similar initiative in Lithuania and decided to collaborate with the national children's agency in Malta, Appogg. This is the second edition of the campaign. While around 100 chil- dren submitted their present re- quests last year, around 350 have already done so this year. The Children's Dreams website is at: www.childrendreams.org European Commission estimates €241 million VAT losses, government differs THE Maltese government is denying a report issued by the European Commission which es- timates that the country's losses from unpaid VAT rose from €47 million in 2000 to €241 million in 2012. According to the Finance Min- istry, the government's own esti- mates point to a loss of €34 mil- lion in 2012 and less than €11 million in 2013. In its report to the study to quantify and analyse the VAT Gap in the EU-27 member states for 2012, the European Commission argued that the VAT Gap in Malta saw a slight increase in 2012 from 2011, as a 3 percent increase in VAT revenues was insufficient to keep pace with the strong increase of over 6 percent in the VTTL, in line with the nominal growth of the economy. The VAT Gap in 2012, at 31 percent, places Malta among the countries with a high VAT Gap in the EU-26 surveyed in this update. The VAT rates were not modified during the course of 2012. In a reaction, the finance minis- try said it considered Malta's VAT mechanism as one of the "most ef- ficient" among the EU's 28 mem- ber states. "This goes completely contrary to what was reported by the Euro- pean Commission in its recently published report for 2012," the ministry said. It said that the ministry's own estimates point to a loss of €34 million in 2012, and less than €11 million in 2013. "The reason for this large dis- crepancy is that, from this year's report for 2012, the Commission has included all the exported serv- ices supplied by the online gaming industry as non-recoverable VAT, while in practice, this industry is, up to now, exempted from charg- ing VAT," it said. The Ministry for Finance will also be communicating this clari- fication to the European Commis- sion. The finance ministry insisted that Malta was at the top end of the list among the most efficient collectors of VAT. "In 2013, Malta collected 8.1 percent of GDP in VAT revenues, a record percentage, in spite of how VAT rates have remained sta- ble at 18 percent. This is also cor- roborated by the Commission's previous report," it added. The ministry added that the high level performance did not mean that tax evasion did not ex- ist: "In fact, various administra- tive and regulatory measures are being introduced so that tax eva- sion is minimised further." Ministry for Finance insists Malta's VAT mechanism 'one of the most efficient among EU member states' Michael Farrugia