Prime Minister Robert Abela today announced a series of measures aimed to sustain business and industry at a time when it is being adversely affected by the Coronavirus spread.
Abela said that taxes will be suspended for the months of March and April – provisional tax, VAT and social security contributions which businesses are due to pay to the government will be suspended to a later date which is still to be established. No date has been as yet set for when these payments will have to be eventually paid, as the government is taking matters day by day, hour by hour, in the wake of developments that are constantly taking place.
The government will also be speeding up its payments to private industry, such as VAT refunds. This is to help the financial liquidity of employers and self-employed, he said.
The priority is health, but the economy needs to be safeguarded too.
Abela said that the decisions were taken after discussions were held with all the stakeholders.
The package, he said, is aimed mostly to help the sectors that have been mostly hit by the Coronavirus spread, which led to measures such as the cancellation of flights from several countries and the introduction of mandatory quarantine to all travellers coming to Malta. This includes the tourism, hospitality, entertainment, transport and manufacturing, Abela said.
Asked about calls from unions for an immediate lockdown, Abela said that health experts are, so far, suggesting otherwise. A lockdown would mean house arrest, with people only allowed to leave their homes to buy food or medicines, Abela said. It would be counter-productive to do it now, he added.
It is impossible to expect a zero rate of cases, he said. Malta is not different from the rest of the world, he said. The secret of the success is to control the peak incidence, limiting as much as possible the spike in the numbers to keep it as low as possible, the Prime Minister said.
We are prepared for all eventualities, even when the numbers will go up, he said.
It is important that people are not selfish. It is known that in 80 per cent of the cases, the symptoms are minimal. But then there are people who are more vulnerable and whose immunity to disease is lower who might be affected badly by the disease. This is why precautions need to be taken and people need to obey quarantine instructions, he said.
More to follow