Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi has told his ministers he is against the issuing of amnesties to those who have undeclared Maltese lira, despite the millions in undeclared cash still hoarded inside Maltese homes and which still need to be converted into euros.
With the present strict money laundering laws in vigour, customers who deposit more than Lm5,000 are obliged to declare the source of the money.
It is an open secret that undeclared millions, mainly from the sale of undervalued property sales, are the main source of the black money which confirms the extent of tax evasion in Malta over the years.
An official spokesman for the Prime Minister confirmed with MaltaToday that there was immense pressure from ‘different quarters’ for the Prime Minister, who also serves as finance minister, to offer an amnesty.
“The Prime Minister has no intention of coming out with an amnesty,” the spokesman said.
The news will be welcomed by the vast majority of salaried workers and bona fide taxpayers but will come as a shock to the thousands who still have to register their undeclared thousands in Maltese lira to convert them into euros.
Money withdrawn or exchanged since the introduction of the euro amounted to €185 million as of last Wednesday, but this is no indication of how much of the undeclared money in Maltese lira was actually converted. The process to determine how much undeclared cash actually entered into the banking system is expected to take years.