Updated | PN says Labour deputy leader 'devoid of ideas'

Updated at 2:07pm with PN reaction.

Labour deputy leader for parliamentary affairs Anglu Farrugia said Budget 2012 had presented small solutions to the big problems being faced by Maltese and Gozitan families.

"It was a budget that did not address the burdens being shouldered by the public because of Lawrence Gonzi's misleading policies - policies that include a list of new direct and indirect taxes," Farrugia said.

Farrugia said the €4.66 weekly COLA increase was simply an adjustment for the inflation incurred over the past year. "It won't be enough once it is weighed in with the average basket of taxes," Farrugia said.

Farrugia also said government was trying to evade its responsibility over wastage and maladministration of government funds.

"Gonzi's irresponsible polices have created various dead-end projects, burdens that erode the quality of life of the most vulnerable, salaried workers and the self-employed, many of them members of the middle class."

In a reaction, the Nationalist Party said the Labour statement was typical of the state Labour was in.

"Shadow deputy prime minister Anglu Farrugia simply filled an entire page without saying one thing that a government with him as deputy prime minister would do the in the current financial storm that many countries are passing through," the PN said in a statement.

The PN lambasted Farrugia's statement "as completely devoid of ideas."

"Countries on the brink of failure are sacking people from the civil service, cutting salaries, social services, introducing new taxes and increasing tax already in place, and charging fees for health and education and reducing pensions.

"On the other hand Malta has 3,000 more full-timers than in the previous year, we're experiencing record tourism, and exports are growing with Malta," the PN said.

The party said Farrugia would empty Malta's coffers with his promise to reduce utility rates while oil prices increase. "We have already seen what happened when Labour removed the 15% VAT in 1996. Today Labour accepts the VAT system but still says it will reduce the same utility rate it increased in 1998 when oil was at $12 a barrel.

"Farrugia expects to be deputy prime minister in the coming years, but has to yet to tell us how Joseph Muscat's promises will not bankrupt the country, in the same Spain's socialist prime minister Josè Zapatero has with his promises."