News | Sunday, 15 March 2009

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Triccas ‘falls for Labour spin’ – Tonio Fenech

Karl Schembri
As thousands were queuing outside Labour Party headquarters in Hamrun to register in the class action to reclaim VAT on car registration tax yesterday, the PN’s MEP candidate Roberta Metsola Tedesco Triccas found herself dumped with the Opposition’s “spin” by none other than party colleague and Finance Minister Tonio Fenech.
“If someone wants to seek legal redress, there are the legal means and government will obviously abide by the court’s decisions, but frankly I won’t waste €50 million and explode the deficit to buy the European Parliament elections. That’s just what Labour wants to do with its spin,” the minister said about the candidate’s call for VAT refunds
Asked if Tedesco Triccas was falling for the Labour spin, Fenech said: “It’s up to her. She has a right to her own opinion and if she wants to take this position, whatever her reasons are, it’s totally in her hands.”
The PN candidate yesterday said she disagreed with government on its refusal to refund VAT charged on registration tax on cars, urging it to stop hiding “behind the technicality of the letter of the law” and fork out the millions to consumers for the sake of fairness.
“I do not have any personal or moral dilemma in stating that I do not agree with the government’s position on the matter of the VAT charged on the registration tax on cars,” the candidate wrote in an article on her website.
Tedesco Triccas said government was “probably on safe ground” in refusing to refund VAT from legal and technical perspectives.
“However, politics is not about technicalities,” she wrote. “It is about a service to the public that should stem from qualities and values, which remain consistent even when faced with difficult administrative management.”
Fenech did not mince his words about Tedesco Triccas: “Her opinion is obviously different to mine and to the government’s. There is no EU decision telling us we have to refund VAT on car registration, not even (EU Commissioner for taxation and customs) Kovacs said so, and there is not even a moral obligation for us to give refunds.”

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