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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 4 DECEMBER 2016 10 News Resources authority issues permit for Zonqor boreholes JAMES DEBONO TWO of the boreholes being drilled at Zonqor by the Sadeen Group, the developers of the con- troversial American University of Malta, needed a permit from the Resources Authority, which was issued only on Friday, days after studies commenced on site. The geological studies being car- ried out at Zonqor Point may not have required a planning permit, as confirmed by a Planning Au- thority spokesperson on Thurs- day, but did require a permit from the Malta Resources Authority. The studies are being carried out to assess the stability of the ground on the Zonqor site which has been earmarked for the de- velopment of a campus by the American University of Malta af- ter 18,000 square metres of ODZ land was transferred by the gov- ernment to Sadeen Group a year ago. Geological studies involving the drilling of boreholes commenced earlier this week. But according to MRA chief executive Anthony Rizzo, it was only on Thursday, days after the commencement of these stud- ies, that the Resources Authority 'was informed that a number of boreholes are going to be dug at Zonqor Point for site investiga- tion purposes'. Rizzo confirmed that according to law boreholes reaching what is defined as the saturated zone – the area in an aquifer, below the water table, in which relatively all pores and fractures are saturated with water – need a permit. According to Rizzo only two of the boreholes will reach the satu- rated zone while the rest will be dug to a depth that is less than half the distance between the wa- ter table and the ground level. "While the two boreholes that will reach the saturated zone need a permit; the rest do not," Rizzo told MaltaToday. A permit for the drilling of the two boreholes reaching the satu- rated zone was issued on Friday. Rizzo insisted that work on these two boreholes has not started yet. The permit issued by the MRA lists a number of conditions, in- cluding the maximum depth of the borehole, the maintenance of a drilling log, the taking of meas- ures to prevent ingress of con- taminants and conditions relating to the sealing of the borehole fol- lowing the investigations. MaltaToday is informed that the MRA inspected the site af- ter being asked to investigate by a member of an environmental NGO. On Thursday, questioned by MaltaToday, a spokesperson for the Planning Authority confirmed that no planning application has been presented for the construc- tion of the American Univer- sity of Malta campus. Geological studies in the area are however underway. "The studies in question do not require a development notifica- tion," the PA spokesperson said. Information collected for these studies could be included in a prospective Environment Impact Study. A spokesperson for ERA confirmed that no terms of refer- ence have been issued for an EIA. In August, AUM academic head Dr Nasser Zayyat announced that a masterplan for the Zonqor cam- pus was still being drafted. Originally, more than 90,000 square metres of ODZ land was envisioned for the development. This was however scaled down after the government decided to allocate Dock 1 to Sadeen Group for the development of a substan- tial part of the new campus. In October, Sadeen Education Investments presented a planning application to build an additional floor on the Knights' Building in Bormla, and three new buildings – including a students' residence – in the Dock 1 area. The Planning Authority has already approved a permit for part of the campus in the British building, also located at Dock 1. PN: SMEs' tax cut won't cost more than €85 million PAUL COCKS THE Nationalist Party Policy for Retail- ers, which among others proposes cut- ting the income tax burden of traders to 10% (from 35%) on their first €50,000 of operating profit, would cost the govern- ment a maximum of €85 million in re- duced income from tax, the PN insists. Those calculations were based on 6,800 traders, each declaring a profit of at least €50,000 and paying only 10% tax instead of 35%. The government intake from the income tax from those 6,800 traders would therefore be €34 million instead of €119 million, hence a loss of €85 million. A day after the policy was released, the PN published another document explaining who would benefit from the reduction in income tax to 10%. In it they give some examples, such as grocery shops, butchers, bars, res- taurants, clothing and apparel outlets, stationeries, printers, travel agencies, hairdressers, self-employed profession- als such as lawyers, doctors, consult- ants, and many other kinds of traders. Then they added: Any other com- mercial sector, both self-employed and those registered as a company. While recognising that very few busi- nesses in Malta pay income tax – only around 22,000 self-employed and 9,000 corporates – MaltaToday confirmed with the National Statistics Office that there are actually 6,546 registered retail- ers in Malta (as the PN in fact quotes in its document), but there are also 37,312 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) employing from 0 to five employees, and a further 24,842 sole traders. If all those were in fact operating and they all declared – today – at least €50,000 in profits, they would be col- lectively paying €1.21 billion in income tax. Under the PN's policy – and again, if they all were in operation and declared at least €50,000 in profits – they would collectively only pay €345.8 million in income tax. In Thursday's edition of the current affairs programme Xtra, broadcast live on TVM, MT managing editor Saviour Balzan presented these figures to PN leader Simon Busuttil and suggested that the government could stand to lose up to €864 million if, indeed, all those registered traders and companies de- clared a €50,000 profit. Busuttil refuted those claims and stood by the figure of €85 million, say- ing the calculations had been worked on companies and traders paying in- come tax. A PN spokesman told MaltaToday afterwards that "the €85m projection is indeed the highest possible amount of revenue foregone under the proposed tax credit. This is the maximum cost (based on the latest financial figures available) that would be foregone in terms of revenue, when it is applied to all SMEs (i.e. excluding large compa- nies)." The spokesman explained that the €85 million would not be a cost for the government; rather, an injection in the economic activity of the small opera- tors which would generate "a manifold return" in terms of growth and tax rev- enue for the government. "Moreover, if we had to take into con- sideration also those companies which do not pay any income tax today, in the event that such trading companies start paying income tax, that would mean that the government would receive more tax revenue, not less," he said. As stated earlier, it is well-known that very few SMEs or sole traders pay income tax, because very few declare profits, many choosing to reinvest any profits in the business. The PN is therefore right that should more companies start declaring a €50,000 profit, government revenue from tax would actually increase. The same spokesman told MaltaTo- day: "If today a company (for one reason or another) is operating but not paying any income tax and under this scheme starts benefiting from the tax credit and pays income tax, the government would be receiving more (and not less) reve- nue since it will be receiving the €5,000 on the first €50,000. But it would be considerably less than if those same companies were incentiv- ised enough to declare their profits even today, with an income tax rate of 35%. So some questions still remain: Why, then, did the PN – in its retail policy document – clearly quote the number of businesses operating as retailers at 6,546 (exactly as quoted to MaltaToday by the NSO) but made no reference to all other sole traders and SMEs, if the policy was open for them as well? Did they round up the number of re- tailers to 6,800 and base their workings solely on them, excluding other SMEs and sole traders? Was the second document published by the PN, explaining who could ben- efit from the scheme – and including SMEs, self-employed, professionals, etc. – merely an afterthought once the party saw just how much positive feedback the policy had generated? Sette Giugno monument returns to St George's Square THE Sette Giugno monument commemorating the deadly 1919 bread riots has been relocated to its original site at St George's Square. Transport and infrastructure minister Joe Mizzi said in a statement that the monument's relocation from Hastings Garden took place over several hours on Fri- day night. Anton Attard's monument had been transferred from St George's Square to Hastings Garden back in 2010 in what was originally supposed to be a temporary meas- ure pending embellishment works at the square. In June, Mizzi launched a public consultation exer- cise, in which the overwhelming majority of respond- ents voted for the monument to return to its original location. However, Speaker Anglu Farrugia and the Nationalist Party had called for it to be relocated to the square in front of the new Parliament building. Foreign minister George Vella undergoes cataract surgery FOREIGN affairs minister George Vella has undergone an operation at Mater Dei to remove cataracts from his left eye, the ministry said in a statement. The operation was carried out by ophthalmologist and Labour MP Franco Mercieca. Vella, 74, has been discharged and has returned to his ministerial duties. In August last year, Vella underwent coronary bypass surgery, a few weeks after he was taken ill during a visit to Beijing and had to have a minor cardiac intervention. Vella is a former deputy prime minister, having served in Alfred Sant's short-lived government between 1996 and 1998 as minister for foreign affairs and the environ- ment.