Edward Scicluna | Budget will remain unchanged

In an interview with weekly newspaper Illum, Finance Minister Edward Scicluna insisted that despite how the Labour government discovered in the last few days that the deficit for 2012 turned out to be somewhat higher than that expected, the government will not tweak the now-overdue 2013 budget.

In the interview, Scicluna reiterated that the Labour Party had originally pledged to retain the budget framework of the 2013 budget as was presented by government in November 2012, which then failed to pass when rogue Nationalist MP Franco Debono voted against the budget, spelling the end for both the budget and the PN government.

The 2013 budget will be presented in parliament by Scicluna on Monday. The only change that Labour announced it would be making to the 2013 budget is the correction of an anomaly by which people earning minimum wage would find themselves paying income tax.

However Scicluna insisted that despite how the 2012 deficit is expected to slightly exceed the 3% EU-imposed limit, the Labour Government would not be tweaking the 2013 budget to make good for this fiscal slippage.

Scicluna also tells Illum that the reasons for this slippage can be attributed to several factors. Chief among them, he says, was the PN government's "overly optimistic" economic growth forecasts, which led to inflated projected income and unrealistic spending.

He also notes that given how the country has been in election mode for well over a year before the general election even kicked off, the government found itself pushed into spending more than it expected to.

Scicluna however insists that the increased deficit can be contained, and that the PL government's number one priority will be curtailing the growth of the national deficit and debt and restoring stability to the country's finances.

Read the full interview in the Sunday Issue of Illum