In his interview published today in The Times of Malta, the Minister for Finances Clyde Caruana has confirmed that large importers with monopoly power in Malta are excessively hiking prices for surplus profits with their monopoly power. The main case of such price hikes being discussed publicly right now are the price hikes by major food importers such as Alf Mizzi & Sons and Francis Busuttil & Sons, after a complaint was made by Labour MEP Alex Saliba to the EU Commission.
The Minister for Finances also confirmed a €13 per week COLA increase and this is Robert Abela’s idea of “substantially increasing the minimum wage” which in material terms it isn’t. This would make the minimum wage in Malta at around €205 per week.
The Minister also confirmed he will be trimming some of the budget of some ministries and entities but gross government expenditure may remain the same partly buoyed by the excessive spending by the Miriam Dalli’s Ministry of Energy in gas purchases at premium prices.
The Minister’s comments that expenditure on education is high but culturally people don’t appreciate education is right on point. However, the Minister should be aware that this situation is partly caused by the Labour Party’s total takeover of public broadcasting and its publicly subsidized, yet bankrupt TV propaganda channel, ONE.
I rather think that if I’d come across Clyde Caruana, say, randomly on a walk along the Victoria Lines, or on a white plastic beach bed at Ghadira (yes, unlikely), I would have warmed to his honest, George Costanza-like persona.
He’s one of the few good guys.
Give him a chance. Not all of them are bad. Only, most of them.
https://i.gifer.com/4akN.mp4
The problem, not just with Clyde but with ALL the Labour cabinet and its MP’s is that they all tow the party line no matter what to give the illusion to the public that they are united behind their stupid leader Robert Abela.
Abela may have the power of being PM but to publicly follow the lead of someone as stupid as that spoiled man child makes them (the entire PL parliamentary group) look stupid.
Clyde is basically saying that is how it is and the government cannot do much about it. Sorry Clyde but that just does not sit with me and it should not sit with anyone. With the right policies and a strong will the government CAN put these importers in their place but it has neither the will nor the policies and it is scared to upset the importers.
So much can be done to cut this abuse. Its not for me to come up with solutions but for the government who was given a mandate by popular vote to manage the country to do so. How about creating new policies which heavily penalise importers who hike prices ? Or cutting the importers BS once and for all by giving huge incentives and rewards in the form of generous tax benefits for other importers who are not greedy ?
Come on Clyde! You have the power to fix this problem. Do something good while you are still finance minister. Leave your mark and stop appeasing the status quo.
Clyde if you can do nothing, make space.