Chamber welcomes stable Budget, but disappointed over maternity leave

The Chamber of Commerce has expressed disappointment on with the manner in which the matter of maternity leave extension was raised abruptly during the final MCESD meeting preceding the Budget, and called for a serious evaluation as well as an in-depth discussion with all social partners prior to its implementation.

"The Chamber believes in nationwide measures to support families achieve an enhanced work-life balance such as child-care centres and schools offering extended hours. The Malta Chamber notes further progress in this regard and warrants further steps forward including the adoption of Banking of Hours. Such nationwide measures would significantly reduce the need for "patch-up" solutions at company level such as maternity leave and career breaks."

The Chamber also said the newly announced tax bands for working parents are also perceived as a step in the right direction.

But it expressed disappointment over another 'wasted opportunity' to address the COLA formula. "This is required to complement Malta's competitiveness position whilst being retained as an instrument to compensate workers for loss of disposable income due to inflation. To this end, as a matter of priority, it continues to insist that the formula used for calculation of COLA incorporates a measure of productivity as has been already agreed within the pertinent MCESD working group."

The Chamber said the Budget had provided a number of measures aimed at enhancing the competitiveness of Malta's major growth promoters, namely the extension of the Micro Invest Scheme providing tax credits for productive investments, the creation of a new microguarantee scheme and further improvement in private industrial zones.

It said it was positive to note an allocation of €14.2 million in incentives to industry, the upgrading of Bulebel and Hal Far Industrial zones, with an investment of €16.7 million, and the investment of €30 million on the BioMalta campus, in the pharmaceutical and life sciences sector.

The Chamber also said the government had accepted its recommendation to enter into further discussions about the service charge for industry.

It added that it would await the implementation details for high-volume energy users to convert accumulated tax credits into grants, to invest in solutions for energy saving and energy generation from renewable sources.

On tourism, the Chamber welcomed the increase in the Malta Tourism Authority's marketing budget to €36 million, €4.2m in further embellishments on new projects and €10m to aid private operators for the improvement of tourist projects and marketing. But it said this still needs to be evaluated whether this amount is sufficient.