No wonder those employers look so scared
The Malta Independent reports today:
Opposition leader Joseph Muscat said that a Labour government would be committed to lower the cost of energy for the industry not through the re-introduction of subsidies but through other means which he did not divulge.
Dr Muscat said this when meeting a delegation from the Malta Employers Association (MEA) at the party headquarters to discuss the proposals presented recently by the association to all political parties.
Just look at the line-up on Labour’s side of the table. These are the people who are supposed to convince business leaders that Labour has the answers to problems we didn’t even know we had.
Left to right:
1. the owner of a Valletta toyshop and a small Rabat boutique which sells cat siuts for 60-year-olds, who spends her days posting pictures of her new shoes and of kittens wearing hats, on Facebook;
2. il-Guy;
3. a 38-year-old former Super One reporter who’s going to be running the country;
4. in-nutar Charles Mangion;
5. James Piscopo, who has taken a sabbatical from the beleaguered national airline, which has undertaken to keep his job open for him, to serve as the Labour Party’s CEO.
No wonder the representatives of the Malta Employers’ Association look so preoccupied, bemused and, frankly, worried.
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Joseph Muscat’s ‘strategy’ for want of a better word, is to stimulate the economy by reducing electricity tariffs.
I spend more on my wife’s and my mobile than I do on electricity and water. Muscat’s strategy is akin to saying “Dispense with one mobile per family and the economy will grow”. Duh!
Four visits (for a wash and blow-dry) to the hairdresser per month cost me just as much as my two-monthly water and electricity bill.
My hairdresser is always fully booked, even on weekdays, and her clientele are certainly not just the well-to-do.
This is a very interesting point. I cannot, for the life of me, understand what all this hullabaloo about water and electricity tariffs is all about.
Our household is made up of two persons but we do not get astronomical bills.
We spend more on my house loan per month than on our water and electricity for a whole year.
Frankly, I think we spend more on mobiles and internet per month than water and electricity for 3 months. We certainly spend more on entertainment than any other thing (including, travel, of course).
Hence, when I hear people complaining of their utility bills and then I have a good look at them, I wonder whether they really know what they are talking about. What do they expect? Free water and electricity?
@ Lomax
Same here. My once yearly payments of my life insurance and car insurance cost more then twice a whole year’s worth of water and electricity bills (house and holiday residences both of which are hardly rabbit hutches).
All the hype about sky-high energy bills is incomprehensible.
If, on the other hand, people persist in wasting, then it is their fault and they should not expect to keep being subsidized by those who are thrifty and who have got their priorities right.
‘5. James Piscopo, who has taken a sabbatical from the beleaguered national airline, which has undertaken to keep his job open for him, to serve as the Labour Party’s CEO.’
I always thought that if one can take an extended leave of absence from one’s workplace, than it follows that the company can manage without the absentee.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20121019/local/air-malta.441768
Rather than ‘bieh u minghajru xorta’ it seems more a case of ‘minghajru ahjar’.
I’m sure that James Piscopo is a monumental asset to the airline. My only hope that his sabbatical is renewed (to help Labour).
Kemm hu bravu u konvincenti, God bless.
The only way he can fulfill his promises is if he introduces a new and inflated tax which everyone will have to pay. I can’t think of any other way.
Increasing the 15% witholding tax at source on interests from bank deposits or government bonds to 20% or 25% is an option that I have been told,Joe Muscat is seriously considering.
That would be great news to small investors like pensioners.
Yes, the only alternative for pensioners with non-life-sustaining Maltese pensions and any possible lifetime’s acquired savings (being robbed through higher withholding tax) would seem to be mandatory employment until you drop dead. This would be if you are self-employed, because little else is available in Malta for those over 60, and even those over 50 are most often among the long-term unemployed.
Seems like the perfect solution for the pension time-bomb, hasten pensioners into poverty and to their graves, effectively robbing Peter (irreplaceable savings) while eliminating retirement (Paul).
I always suspected that the PL had a social conscience. Unfortunately it would seem, if indeed they take this route, entirely malformed.
Another regressive tax, like Sant’s infamously interrupted door tax, only larger. After all, under Labour, once they are in government, the financial “hofra” spontaneously gets bigger and debts increase as money dries up.
I heard from industry sources that he is considering a system of progressive taxation.
Theoretically, it is the only way Labour know how to create the “new” middle class (whatever that means): downgrade the rich rather than elevate the poorer strata.
They’re looking at trading energy using foreign brokers, once the interconnector’s in place. If it includes overscheduling, jargon for booking transmission lines, to corner particular nodes of the European grid, so be it.
For overbooking to have an effect, there have to be certified periods of maintenance ‘coinciding’ with the said booking, lowering supply, with the plant running at low output maintaining prices high.
The brokers would then trade units, speculating on demand and reaping part of the profits. Most of these got their experience working on behalf of the gas industry.
Mizzi let drop three details hinting at all three above:
Go for gas asap, capital costs to change to gas not an issue, (read investor willing to play)
Prices in Sicily too expensive, (use Malta to expand Sicilian node and bypass operators with cutthroat competition)
Change nature of maintenance and invest in standby turbines to save on fuel costs (dovetailing neatly with enough supply for Malta)
He also said the government doesn’t have a clue how to procure its energy, that hedging is an outdated concept.
Anyone noticed how Joseph maybe isn’t allowed to disclose the details? They look at Enemalta as another Enron, a corporation with a government on its side.
So could it be what they are planning is the following: reclaim land out at sea, build a gas powered power plant on the reclaimed land and sell energy to pay for this new plant and for disposing of the liquefied CO2, carry out a social impact assessment to build an argument against the negative environmental impact that will occur should this be proposed.
And all this for what? What’s in it for them, who has an interest to see this go through?
How do you reclaim land? Why all the parties at a certain location with construction ties? Why keeping mum on Dalli?
A political party irrespective of it being in government or opposition should be transparent because governing a country is not a business transaction where you’re out to make money.
If what I’m thinking is not true than the PL should be very clear of what they intend to do from now and not wait until the election is called? Why all this waiting? So as not to give enough time to answer these questions and more?
Yes and no,
I say they’ve got contracts practically signed to keep from our knowledge. The hitch is the terminal required. CCS, as you say remains another commercial option.
The details mentioned by Mizzi last Monday link energy trading as a commodity, just like CO2, to one major broker in the UK. Mizzi also mentioned examples of who could do this.
To understand the risks, all one has to do is to look up the California energy crisis. If the idea is to sign off the corporation’s debts to these guys we will be at their mercy. When Joseph met Mario Monti, Alex Sciberras Trigona was present.
As for land reclamation, what got to me was Joseph’s usual tendency to grasp the concept in the worst way possible, (jaqbadhom minn sormhom kull darba), If we have to, let’s please not look at excavation material as the basic resource, there is a thing called the caisson.
What is certain, is that his manifesto will be what his lobbyists fed him. We’ll see a return of quantified destruction post 1992 as the only criterion to progress.
The implications, given the building stock, are bloody serious.
Joseph must have read this report
http://www.epc.eu/pub_details.php?cat_id=2&pub_id=3066
Note that again, he has not stated when he will do, so he won’t.
Looks like the parish council meeting in The Vicar of Dibley.
According to Super One news tonight, Dr. Joseph Muscat told the business leaders that Labour’s two main drives to help business will comprise of cutting the electricity tariffs and the cutting of bureaucracy, and specific mention was made of the MEPA.
Analysts and journalists have focused on Dr. Muscat’s promise on electricity tariffs, but unfortunately, little attention has been given so far to his other promise about cutting bureaucracy.
Dr. Muscat should be asked to explain clearly what bureaucracy he will be cutting and how he will go about doing that, and how this will impact on other stakeholders and our quality of life. Does he plan to dismantle the MEPA at the detriment of our environment?
Two dinosaurs. One from the Jurassic period, the other one from the Cretaceous.
“Speaking during a meeting with officials from the Malta Employers Association, Dr Muscat said that a new Labour government would further develop the concept of Public Private Partnerships which had not been exploited enough.”
This sends shivers down my spine.
Knowing Labour, when they talk about Public Private Partnerships, what comes to mind is that Labour will compel private businesses to transfer part of their business to the government or else face the consequences. The National Bank story comes to mind.
Seems that Labour is planning to interfere with private business.
The quote above is from The Times.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20121109/local/labour-will-have-a-clear-strategy-for-creation-of-more-productive-work-muscat.444665
Ciccio, as an expat with my own business here, if this motley crew gains power, I’m outta here. These people are very scary. Their innuendoes are not conducive to encouraging entrepreneurs.
If I had been at that table, I wouldn’t have been just scared, I would have been scared shitless.
Where was Edward Sickluna?
Playing bowling … http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20121109/local/children-and-grandparents-join-meps-for-a-game-of-bowling.444661
“…Joseph Muscat said that a Labour government would be committed to lower the cost of energy for the industry not through the re-introduction of subsidies but through other means which he did not divulge.”
Those employers must have come out of that meeting feeling more anxious with the uncertainty about how Labour will finance its cut in electricity tariffs, and how the undisclosed method or methods could adversely affect their business.
One hopes Labour will not break the back of Enemalta when they come to implement their undisclosed plans.
I was trying to seduce this amazingly beautiful girl the other night, and I said I would be committed to raise the level of her pleasure not through the introduction of my penis (as explained so eloquently by Doc Zammit) but through other means which I did not divulge.
She left me in disgust.
Speaking of Zammit, did you tell her that you were going to tie her up?
No but her father (Raymond “is-sentina”) did. He also threatened to beat me to a pulp if I ever looked at his daughter again. I had quoted Baudelaire in his presence and now he has me down as gay.
So Ritienne and I carry on in secret, consummating our clandestine love affair in dark parking lots and or near unlit wayside chapels.
Woops, wrong girl. Damn, I must cut down on my planting of the wild oats.
[Daphne – Sowing, Baxxter. You’re slipping.]
Have I become dyslexic? Not to worry, I’ll get my own facilitator and perhaps I’ll try my luck with her too.
Eh, Baxxter, but you should have told her that you would tell her how and when as soon as the Prime Minister announces the eLection (a process also known as “isaffar is-suffara”).
And that by the looks of it, this will happen soon – as soon as Franco votes against the budget in Parliament and then turns on the Minister of Finance and tells him “Hekk, hu go fik” (whatever that means).
Marlene Mizzi talked about cuttings transport costs and gave details on how her business keeps transport costs low as she makes full use of her husband’s magisterial car for and chauffeur for toy deliveries.
The enigmatic and sphinx like Joe Farrugia has become more enigmatic and sphinx like since he came face to face with il Duce, il Guy and that older lady with the shoulder pads and the well manicured hands.
But isn’t Marlene Mizzi the president of the labour Business forum?
I’m sure Labour could enlighten us as to her credentials. But I do suppose sending packages in her husband’s magisterial car and posting pictures of kittens and her shoes on fejsbook qualifies her for all this.
I can’t exactly say that I can’t wait to see the back of Marlene Mizzi. In fact, we saw it recently in one of Daphne’s blog posts, and it was not nice.
Joseph Muscat ghadu ma jrid jghidx kif u x’fatta ser jaghmel.
Qisu is-sigriet ta’ Fatima.
Indeed, the members of the MEA look worried, but to me il-Guy looks more worried than all the rest put together.
Maybe he is wondering how his Orange Cruises business will move ahead under Labour?
*complain about” not “complain of” in my comment. My apologies.
An average family bill is €90 per month. My PVs and solar water heater cost me €8300.
I received a grant from the government of €3530 (€2880 for the PVs and €560 for the water heater) I took a loan of €4770 which I have to repay in 5 years at 2.8% interest.
I pay €57 a month so I am already saving a lot of money while I am repaying my investment and I will save much more once the loan has been repaid.
I sell an average of 8 units per day whereas I use around 4-6 units per day since I have bought low consuming appliances. I earn 25 c per unit so on the long run my bill will always be -0.