Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/739617
10 Budget 2017 maltatoday, TUESDAY, 18 OCTOBER 2016 LEADERS' REACTIONS Budget 2017 introduces 'a new wave of social services' - Joseph Muscat MIRIAM DALLI BUDGET 2017 introduces "a new wave of social services" which tar- gets a generation and supports the most vulnerable, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said. In a joint press conference with deputy prime minister Louis Grech and finance minister Edward Sci- cluna, Muscat said that all measures are sustainable. "The plan has been always been that of stabilizing the economy, gen- erate growth, create work in abun- dance and then target those people who cannot keep up with the rest of society. "Now is the time to help these peo- ple and it is now possible to launch this new wave of social services in Malta." The government has announced a new set of measures mostly target- ing pensioners, persons with dis- ability, and families who are in pov- erty or at risk of social exclusion. Finance Minister Edward Scicluna, in the budget presentation, also an- nounced that it was a government's goal to target children under the age of 16 and ensure that none of them are at poverty. "This is a generational goal which we will be delivering in a sustainable manner," he said. "This is possible thanks to our deficit and debt targets – what we're giving today is affordable and sus- tainable." In reply to a question by MaltaTo- day, Muscat reiterated that it was time for social partners to sit round the table and start discussing mini- mum wage. The government, he said, has opted for a system where the burden to help the vulner- able was taken by the government. There have been consistent calls by the civil society for an increase in minimum wage, which however have been mostly rejected by social partners. "I had called on social partners to launch a discussion on minimum wage but it appears that this fell on deaf ears," Muscat said, adding that there must be a decision on how it could be adjusted. There is an agreement, he added, that the cost of living adjustment does not reflect today's realities and needs to be updated. The Prime Minister however went on to argue that it was not just a question of increasing the mini- mum wage: there are approximately 3,600 people on minimum wage according to studies, half of which are most probably foreign. He went on to add that, once increasing the minimum wage, the probability is that all other wages will go up. Taking questions on traffic, Mus- cat said the government was against a system whereby it makes it less affordable to own a private car. In- stead, the government was targeting different groups to encourage the use of shared transport. Encouraging people to take part in a public consultation launched by Transport Malta, Muscat suggested that he favoured the use of a metro or underground. Busuttil lambasts Budget as 'cosmetic and visionless' YANNICK PACE OPPOSITION leader Simon Busuttil hit out at the 2017 Budget as "cosmetic and visionless", arguing that it should have included electricity tariff reduc- tions and more concrete measures to tackle traffic. "This is a Budget without a vision about what sort of country we want to leave behind for our children," Busuttil told a press conference. "It didn't introduce a single economic sector, and did not even mention the middle class, despite Joseph Muscat's constant claims that he leads a government for the middle class." He criticised the Prime Minister for not reducing electricity tariffs, de- scribing it as an "anti-climax." "The government could have easily reduced tariffs, thanks to the intercon- nector and BWSC power station and the fact that the international price of oil has plummeted," he said. "The people will wake up tomorrow morning and their electricity bills would not have changed." He also criticised the government for failing to mention what sort of al- ternative transport system the country should invest in, and for not even referring to mention the LNG gas tanker that will be berthed in Marsaxlokk Bay within the Budget. He added that it didn't include the government's plans to deal with the economic ripple-effects of Brexit, nor its plans to combat pressure within the EU for a harmonized European taxation system, nor its plans for when Malta's current package of EU funds expires in 2020. He dismissed the government's description of the Budget as a social one as "cosmetic", claiming that new incentives such as the €4 weekly pension rise for married people living on a single minimum pension was nowhere near enough. "The Budget failed the Caritas test on poverty," he said, referring to a Caritas report published earlier this year on the state of people in poverty. "Caritas had said earlier this year that people in poverty are now in a worse state than they were three years ago. The €4 weekly allowance increase for married pensioners on a minimum pension isn't enough as it doesn't even make good for what they had lost three years ago."