Budget will be frozen if it is not approved

The price of petrol, cigarettes and cement will go down once again next week while civil servants will not receive their wage increases at the start of the new year if the Budget is not approved on Monday. This unprecedented scenario will kick in if the Budget is not approved, which now looks highly likely with Nationalist MP Franco Debono openly pledging to vote against it. According to the Financial Administration and Audit Act and the Revenue (Safeguard) Act, all the Budget measures announced last week will have to be put on hold, while excise taxes which came into effect on the day of the Budget must be reversed. “According to the law, once the Budget is not approved, all government funds will be technically frozen”, a senior government official told The Times yesterday. “This means the Government cannot introduce any of the announced measures while increases in excise taxes will have to be reversed to what they used to be before the Budget presentation.” The law provides for the Government to keep running the country on a caretaker basis until a new Budget is approved, giving a four-month time window in which recurrent public spending can continue. At the same time, the law...