2013 Budget expected by mid-November

Finance minister Tonio Fenech today said the 2013 Budget is expected to be presented "between the beginning of to mid-November."

Although no precise date has been set, Fenech told MaltaToday that the budget will be held by mid-November.

The approaching budget could well spell the end for the current Nationalist administration if Nationalist MP Franco Debono delivers on his threat to vote against the government, which has already lost its one-seat majority following the defection of Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando who now sits in Parliament as an independent.

The date of the looming general election could depend on whether the government survives the budget or not, although the Prime Minister could dissolve Parliament before the budget takes place.  

Parliament will reconvene on Monday 1 October following a three-month summer recess.

Speaking after a visit at TRC Family Entertainment in Msida, the finance minister also insisted that Labour leader Joseph Muscat had not denied that he will freeze the minimum wage.

Yesterday, Muscat announced that he will initiate libel proceeding against Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and the Nationalist Party over claims that Labour will "freeze" the minimum wage.

The Labour leader has described these claims as a "lie".

"It is an attack not only on me and the Labour Party, but also an attack on civil society because it seems that despite all those spokespersons who were present at the congress dialogue which is being quoted understood my position, Gonzi and his people somehow understood the reverse."

However, this morning Fenech pointed out that the unions, which Muscat is claiming to have on his side, have not endorsed the proposal not to increase the minimum wage.

The finance minister said that the Forum Unions Maltin (Forum) and UHM have distanced themselves from Labour's proposal and reminded that the General Workers Union had included the increase of the minimum wage among its set of proposals to all political parties for the forthcoming general election.

"Joseph Muscat should sue the Labour Party's information office because it has clearly stated that the party will not increase the minimum wage if it is elected to government," Fenech said.

The Nationalist Party is insisting that Labour leader Joseph Muscat's pledge not to raise the national minimum wage, announced during last week's PL national congress, was tantamount to a 'minimum wage freeze', alluding to the general wage freeze instituted by a Labour administration back in 1983.

Although, Muscat never suggested he would remove the cost of living adjustment he said a new Labour governmnet will not increase the minimum wage over and above the annual cost of living increase, citing productivity and economic growth as Labour's main priorities. 

The Nationalists' new electoral billboard hits out at Labour's 'minimum wage freeze' portraying Muscat holding at an ice cube with minimum wage inscribed over it.

During his visit at TRC Family Entertainment noted that the gaming industry in Malta is growing and hailed the €15 million investment by TRC, which already employs more than 100 persons, despite opening less then a year ago.

Fenech said: "Unlike Labour which wants to attract cheap labour to Malta, the government is attracting value added jobs such as the ones created in the gaming industry, which do not depend on the minimum wage."