This is what Muscat's proposals would have cost the country had he been prime minister in the last three years: EUR 444 million
Trust me. I used to be a Super One reporter.
UPDATED: WE’VE OVERLOOKED MUSCAT’S PROMISE TO REFUND VAT ON CAR REGISTRATION TAX WHETHER HE AND EMMANUEL MALLIA TAL-LABOUR BUSINESS FORUM WIN THEIR CLASS ACTION SUIT OR NOT. THAT MEANS YOU SHOULD ADD ANOTHER EUR 40 MILLION AT LEAST TO THE FIGURE OF EUR444 MILLIION BELOW.
WE’RE IN BASKET-CASE ECONOMIC TERRITORY HERE, MY DEARS, BUT THAT’S WHAT COMES FROM BEING NUTS ENOUGH TO ENTRUST THE RUNNING OF THE COUNTRY TO A 36-YEAR-OLD SUPER ONE REPORTER OF LIMITED INTELLIGENCE.
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Last night on Bondiplus, Joseph Muscat’s economic proposals of the last two years were analysed and their cost to the country estimated: EUR444 million.
Faced with this figure, Muscat’s man, Charles Mangion, was at a loss for words.
This is not surprising, as his forte is land deals and notarial contracts. It is not finance or managing the economy.
I think that was the moment when all those watching froze inside, including – I have no doubt – many who are still super-keen on Muscat, having failed to notice that he is no longer fashionable, and that it is now embarrassing to say that you plan to vote for him because it makes you look almost as big an idiot as he is.
This morning, the producers of Bondilus released those figures to the media. So here they are.
WHAT JOSEPH MUSCAT’S PROPOSALS WOULD HAVE COST THE COUNTRY, 2008-2011
The leader of the Opposition, Joseph Muscat, has objected to several of the financial measures taken by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi over the last two years, and he has criticised him for not cutting income tax as he had pledged to do before the last general election.
We have based our analysis on a simple question: if Muscat and not Gonzi had been prime minister between June 2008 and the end of 2011, how much would his proposals, and his failure to take the steps he criticised Gonzi for taking, would have cost Malta?
The reduction in income tax would have cost EUR140 million.
Muscat wanted the government to do as Gordon Brown did and cut VAT from 18% to 17%. That would have cost EUR 52 million.
The Labour Party wanted VAT on restaurant bills cut from 18% to 5%. That would have cost another EUR52 million.
At a press conference after the budget speech, Muscat criticised the increase in the VAT rate on hotel accommodation. Doing away with that would mean another EUR6 million gone.
He also criticised the increase in MEPA fees, which will add another EUR7 million to state revenue.
Muscat has criticised harshly and systematically the increased cost of water and electricity. Without this, by his own estimate, there would be EUR170 million fewer in the state coffers over two years.
Joseph Muscat had made a prposal as to how he would cut down on the cost of water and electricity to families. Bondiplus had worked out that this would result in just EUR5 million of savings to families in a year.
If you add up the cost of the measures Joseph Muscat wants to take and the cost of those he says shouldn’t have been taken, the negative impact on the deficit would be EUR444 million over three years.
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Admitedly, JM did say a good thing here and there. What I really disliked was the Eur670,000 that he feels could have been saved from the salaries of 10 top officials.
Am I to deduce that these people will all be sacked if JM is to become prime minister? Will they be replaced? Will the new people work gratis?
If not, the saving will not be Eur670,000. No one would be ready to work in these top positions without having a very good salary and this will be the case even under Labour. Take Jason Micallef for example; he has a quite a beefy salary.
On a separate note, did you by any chance see Anglu Farrugia at the end of Muscat’s speech? He stood up hugged his leader, shook his hand, told him a big prosit. And he spent the entire two hours banging in approval on the table before him.
For better coordination Bondi should move his plus and his crew to the PN HQ in Pieta.
Yea right! How about explaining why this is not true, that the 444 million figure is inflated or whatever. If what is stated here is true, than Daphne is perfectly right in saying that this guy’s an idiot, and he might be our prime minister in a few years time.
So instead of such senseless accusations that Bondi is biased in favour of PN, you would be more credible if you try and counter the argument, or facts.
I’m not here to defend Joseph. I’m just giving Bondi some sound advice on better coordination.
Kev, Kev, Kev, you are an idiot. Bondiplus listed black on white why the coffers of Malta would be EUR 444million out of pocket.
Bondiplus forgot the car registration tax which Muscat has promised to refund.
He looks like one of those televangelists in that photo.
Kull ma jonqsu l – “alleluya !” to the evils of gONziPn.
“Faced with this figure, Muscat’s man, Charles Mangion, was at a loss for words”
He was so lost that he resorted to unbelievable arrogance. I cannot for the life of me understand how he participates in discussions on financial matters when he has no clue what he might be talking about.
I’m on the same page with you on that one. Finance is clearly not his forte and Leo Brincat is definitely more up to snuff.
I hate to break it to you, and with you I mean you and your friends at WE, but the opposition’s reaction to the budget is, as it implies, a reaction to the budget, and not an alternative budget exercise.
What’s more, if this analysis from Bondi wanted to be taken a little more seriously it should have also factored in everything Muscat mentioned and not only a handful of cherry picked items.
For example, Muscat specifically mentioned a list of unaffordable and unnecessary expenditure items, the absence of which would have saved the country millions, namely the new pointless parliament building, the mysterious donation of the Maltacom land to a private entrepreneur and the excessive financial packages given to some people in the civil service, just to name a few.
But Bondi decided these shouldn’t be included in his pseudo analysis.
If there’s an analysis worthy of prime time TV it should have been about the EUR 200 million discrepancy between what was budgeted last year and the actual data of this year. Now that would have been a nice show. A government should not be judged on what it plans to do but on what it actually does. Investigative journalism my ass!
Lejborist. Can you distinguish between capital and recurrent costs, for there lies the difference between the two set of figures.
If that is not enough you may want to consult theories on the spill-over effect of certain infrastructural developments, all the more relevant when they are signed by a celebrity.
You may also want to delve into considering how moving parliament outside the palace is an indirect investment in tourism.
Whose is this site?
http://www.therealbudget.com
[Daphne – The Labour Party, but as with maltastar.com, they don’t tell you.]
Bondi left out the €40 million in VAT on car registration tax which Joseph says he will refund regardless of the court decision – that should cover the ‘other side of the equation’. So now – please explain where the €484 million are coming from….
Charles Mangion is a good notary, liked by many people, but it stops there. It is painfully obvious that the guy’s an incompetent fool when it comes to economics and his job of shadowing the Minister of Finance leaves much to be desired.
Last night he was well and truly gobsmacked. Ejja, Joey, get your act together mate – ghax il-kliem vojt mhux sejjer iwasslek imkien, and time is pressing.
In two years’ time Joey will reduce water and electricity bills by 28.5% overnight without taking a cent of taxpayers’ money.
It is a very simple system tried and tested over many years when Wistin Abela was the minister responsible. We had got used to it then. We will once again.
Cut off the supply on two days every week. Elementary.
So please deduct 170 from the 444.
Ghalhekk huwa kontra l-power station, ghax jaf li mhux ser ikollu bzonnha. Mbilli jaqta’ dawl darbtejn fil-gimgha, mhux xorta ghalih.
Laqwa li jiffranka, mhux hekk. Hekk imdorrijin il-Mintuffjani.
The assumption here appears to be that people would have bought exactly the same amount of goods and services if the VAT rate had been reduced.
The point of reducing the VAT rate would be to encourage people to buy more. Therefore even though the rate had been reduced the VAT revenues would increase due to greater sales. Also increased sales activity is beneficial to other parts of the economy.
Eh mela n-nies mhux daqshekk neqsin mil-flus wara kollox!
This is just what we need. I can’t wait to tick the blue boxes in 2013.
And i can’t wait to tick the reds.Shame we have to wait for 2013 babe!!
You will regret it – just as we did in 96 …
I am regretting what is happening today.
Albert, you missed the bus. You cannot regret the present. Only past actions are regrettable.
Had you voted PN two years ago then you could be regretting that.
Since you obviously did not vote PN you will have to wait for two to three years.
Then you wil be able to regret having voted PL in 2013.
In the meantime just shut up.
What are your regrets, Bert? No more printing presses being burnt? No more beatings for the PM’s old Mum? No more Desserta?
“Faced with this figure, Muscat’s man, Charles Mangion, was at a loss for words. This is not surprising, as his forte is land deals and notarial contracts. It is not finance or managing the economy.”
I fully agree. Lawyers, notaries and doctors should stick to ministries where they can have an impact, not dominate the whole political scene.
This is also true for the Nationalist Party but at least, the Finance Ministry is in the hands of an accountant.
Why are the majority of politicians lawyers? I know the answer but I’d rather not type it.
Hawn zlaqt siehbi, ghax Dr Gonzi lawyer u meta kien ministru tal finanzi, kien hu li gab lil Malta fuq saqajha.
Lil Gahan mhux il glekk ghamlitu nies nismaghhom jghidu.
Mhux xi tkun, imma kemm tkun kapaci tiehu pariri tajbin, tmexxi tajjeb u thaddem il grey cells ta’ mohhok trid.
Tal-Labour lanqas jafu x’ laqathom, ghadhom qishom storduti, qishom ghadhom gimgha wara l elezzjoni.
One tiny flaw – it’s assuming the amount not collected by government = disappears into thin air rather than getting it back from alternate sources i.e. getting spent on consumer good.
Joseph Muscat remains true to his character, a plonker. However, I find the release of this analysis by Where’s Everybody VERY strange. I can’t remember anything similar, on any issue, ever being issued before.
Yeah, it looks like straight out of Gordon Pisani’s baking oven.
[Daphne – Do ovens do something other than bake? And I don’t think Gordon Pisani does much cooking.]
My microwave oven doesn’t bake.
[Daphne – Then it’s not an oven.]
The problem with Labour is that they do not have someone with the experience and knowledge of how an economy works and when faced with these figures, Charles Mangion does not know how to reply to these “costings”.
The reduction in income taxes would have meant an increase in disposable income for the people which could have generated more consumption and demand.
The reduction in VAT again would have increased the income and most probably consumption.
Again the reduction of VAT on restaurants could have stimulated more consumption, therefore, more business to their owners.
And yet again the VAT on accommodation will mean that Malta will be less competitive and giving the contribution to the economy this will probably have a negative impact on the economy.
The MEPA fees most probably will be passed on consumers another measure that will further decrease the disposable income of consumers.
The increase and the confusion relating to the utility bills again reduce consumers’ income and to make matters worse creates uncertainty since many are not sure when their bill will be received and if it will be correct.
An intelligent person would look at both the pros and cons of any suggestions and simply take the negative aspect of the proposals that were made by Labour.
Both on this blog and on Bondi Plus there was no intelligent and objective analysis of the mentioned proposals as these mediums of communication are not interested in being objective.
Luckily for the current Government and the few that for obvious reasons will do anything to stay in power at all costs their opponent is still not convincing enough to throw them in opposition for a very long period.
The unfortunate ones are the hardworking and honest people that are paying taxes to make good for the inefficiencies, mismanagement, nepotism and corruption.
Chris Ripard, your comment in reply to Jake was deleted by mistake.
Do you still have a record, and if so, could you post it again, please? Thank you.
You’re quite right, Jake! – esp in the last 2 paras. Whilst it’s easy enough to slag off the LP, an objective look at PN fiscal policy says it all: they have only one solution to any given problem, namely, throw our money at it, in copious amounts. This is how they finally squashed the Drydocks cockroach, probably how they will do likewise to the Airmalta one (before the Laburisti start banging on, let’s recall that Airmalta only ever made money when it enjoyed a virtual monopoly) and probably how the pensions time-bomb will be defused.
How many (admittedly, much-needed) projects ever went to budgeted cost? ALL overran by many millions.
Fenech’s budget gets about 60% of its revenue off the Common (or garden) Man. This is shocking, but necessary, because under the PN, despite one of the proportionally biggest civil services in the known universe, it gets very little done. In fact, it’s usually via some ‘private/public’ partnership that anything happens. The civil service still has half-days, low productivity, lax practices like skiving, throwing sickies etc. Latch on the myriad quangos and authorities, who seem to be staffed solely by well-paid managers/consultants and you see the need for oodles of cash.
The much-touted VAT introduced in 1995 by Johnny Cash has loopholes through which one could drive a bus.
PN’s record on oil exploration – let alone discovery – is abysmal.
It’s easy to call Dr Muscat a chump but we shouldn’t wet ourselves over PN’s financial wizardry, coz there ain’t any!
Bondiplus fell short of estimating the impact of such a tragedy were it to happen, for example the loss of thousands of jobs which also would have had a bigger negative impact on the national economy. Without any shadow of doubt with Joseph Muscat as Prime Minister instead of Gonzi Malta’s finances would have been in shambles by now.
How lucky we are that Joseph Muscat’s premiership pretentions are merely his own dreams. Why bother him? Let us leave him enjoy his happy dreams.
The loss of Euro 484 million in public revenues is news value in itself. But a more serious issue is how this would have impacted Malta’s credit rating and the ensuing measures of austerity that the government would have been asked to implement quickly by those at the IMF and the EU. Our economy and our society would be in a mess by now.
The country would better avoid any economic advice from Labour.
I’m not so convinced any more by the slick PN campaign daph…
[Daphne – Is there one? They usually start three or four months before the general election. It’s a little early for that. Labour is the one running a full-on election campaign, which means it’s going to burn out before 2013. This is the period when a solid foundation should be built for that campaign (and ensuing term of government), but this means researching and writing policy not producing YouTube videos.]
The campaign is on going, they never let go. The talking points are well rehearsed and the spokespeople (usually ministers and PS for packaged media appearances) are well trained in mock Q&A exercises. Bondiplus looks like a government commissioned PR piece…as usual.
I’m sorry daph but I’m not impressed anymore. Slickness is not enough. Looking at the results of all these PN government years, I’d have to say that being slick only means that you have more money to spend to dress your message. But the message is getting awfully dry. Churchill lost the post war election, thank goodness. After EU accession, PN is starting to look stale.
It’s going to be a PL victory and Austin will smash his laptop again in frustration.
I don’t believe the polls Bondi was showing.
[Daphne – Oh dear, it sounds like you’ve suffered some personal upset which has coloured your perspective. ‘Slickness is not enough’. I agree. And that’s why Malta is where it is today, because slickness is not enough. Indeed, slickness is pointless unless it communicates the real skill that lies beneath. This government’s communication is anything but slick. Most people in the field would describe it as rather the opposite. Also, there’s no need to apologise. It’s not as though I’m running the country or the Nationalist Party.]
you’ve suffered some personal upset which has coloured your perspective
so discrediting my post is enough to win the argument? I’m not a labour party candidate, I’m a voter…
This government’s communication is anything but slick
at least we’re not seeing billboards paid with public funds telling us how good the government is… but we still get dissett off air to leave bondiplus as sole purveyor of truth
[Daphne – 1. Dissett is not ‘off air’ (that expression applies to radio only). Plans to cancel the show have been cancelled. 2. Yes, when your political views are the result of personal bitterness, they are discredited. 3. If billboards upset you, I hope you fully understand that the Joseph Muscat ‘leader 1 to 12’ series is designed for billboards.]
Dissett is not ‘off air’ (that expression applies to radio only).
I’m not going to quibble on the idiom you follow or the one I should use on your blog. Oxford American dictionary gives it as referring to broadcast (implying radio & TV), it also included cable in the definition. But it’s not important as my message wasn’t ambiguous in that sense.
Plans to cancel the show have been cancelled
that’s news to me. There’s nothing on the times website on this I only found a snippet on the independent. For me the damage is done though. PBS is a public service and dissett was a respected programme that balanced WE.
If billboards upset you, I hope you fully understand that the Joseph Muscat ‘leader 1 to 12’ series is designed for billboards
the billboards in question didn’t serve as public information service but to burnish the PN government’s image before the election
Yes, when your political views are the result of personal bitterness, they are discredited
thanks for the info. I’ll make sure to tag it as a disclaimer to my comments from now on.
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disclaimer: I might be a disgruntled voter. Take my comments with a pinch of salt.