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Julian Manduca
More than three weeks after the Prime Minister was first asked whether it made sense to rent four floors in Malta House in Brussels he is none the wiser. In what is turning out to be a never ending saga for Lawrence Gonzi, he still has not been informed by his consultants, KPMG, as to what Malta’s tax position would be should it decide to lease four of the nine floors on a commercial basis.
Twenty four days have passed since MaltaToday first asked Gonzi whether he was aware that Malta would lose the tax exemptions granted to consular premises on the floors to be rented out.
Confronted face to face a few days later, the Prime Minister told MaltaToday journalist “God forbid,” but since then the silence has been deafening.
The last communication from the Prime Minister’s communications coordinator Alan Camilleri, more than a week ago, was that “as soon as we have the answers from our advisors (KPMG) we will send them to you.”
The Prime Minister went on record several times in the past weeks reacting to criticism that Malta House, which will cost the public coffers upwards of Lm9 million, was too expensive, and countered by stating that four floors would be rented. On different occasions Gonzi mentioned three and half floors, four and four and a half, but it remains unclear how much tax will have to be paid on the revenue to be generated from leasing the property and to what extent the embassy’s tax exemption will be lost.
Given that it is government’s intention to turn the property in Rue Archimede into a mixed development housing both commercial and consular offices, different security exigencies may also have to be considered, but MaltaToday’s questions about security arrangements, put to the Prime Minister 24 days ago, remain unanswered.
julian@newsworksltd.com
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