12 - 18 October 2000

Government must be decisive – Dalli

by Ivan Brincat

It is up to an elected government to take final decisions and be held accountable for those decisions. “While I have stated many times that government is prepared to listen and discuss with all the constituted bodies on all issues, in an important policy document such as the budget it would be very difficult to reach a consensus agreement,” Finance Minister John Dalli told The Malta Business Weekly yesterday.
The General Workers’ Union will be presenting its petition on the budget next week even though the date, time and place has not yet been set. GWU secretary general Tony Zarb said that over 50,000 signatures were collected in the petition and the decision on when to present it to government will be announced today. Mr Zarb claimed yesterday that the minister was playing for the crowd when he said that there will be no more discussions after the budget is presented.
Mr Zarb said that the union could not understand how Mr Dalli wanted to make the final decision despite “consulting with the MCED”. “He has kept a veto on his hand to decide,” Mr Zarb claimed.
“He is trying to pave the way for other measures to be introduced. Until today, the minister did not deny that the government wants to earn Lm30m in revenue and that it also intends to increase the VAT zero-rating on food, education and health.”
Mr Zarb also said the petition included the alternatives which the GWU had raised in February this year. The same alternatives are now being proposed by other social partners. “This shows that our suggestions are valid and are also the government’s aims.”
The GWU secretary general said that if the text of the petition do not mean anything, then the proposals of the other social partners also mean nothing.
However, Mr Dalli told The Malta Business Weekly that the GWU should know that in front of the MCED, there are many proposals up for discussion and these go beyond what the GWU had proposed earlier.
The finance minister said he could not understand how the GWU are maintaining a detached position from the MCED on the budget discussions and at the same time state that
the MCED was discussing their
proposals.
During a news conference yesterday, Mr Zarb said that the proposals of the GWU are mainly related to the fact that a financial deficit cannot be changed into a social deficit with all achievements being dismantled.
Mr Zarb said the government had an opportunity to discuss the GWU alternatives but choose to confront it instead. “The general public however, heard our pleas, as they signed the petition.”