THE MALTA FINANCIAL & BUSINESS TIMES

06 April 2005
ISSUE NO. 381


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Editorial:
A moral signpost


Interview
Melita Cable's Franco Degabriele


Malta Today



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Maltese seen unprepared for EU Savings Tax Directive
By David Lindsay
The full disclosure of banking details between EU member states and the payment of Maltese tax on earnings accrued from such accounts and a withholding tax on income earned from accounts held in offshore jurisdictions is in the offing for Maltese holding funds abroad this summer. Many Maltese holding funds in offshore locations who did not participate in the government’s recent Investment Repatriation Scheme could very well be caught unawares come 1 July when the European Union’s Savings Tax Directive comes into force...
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Tonio Fenech estimates 65 per cent tax compliance rate
By James Debono
A press conference at the Inland Revenue Department, at which Parliamentary Secretary Tonio Fenech announced that 30,000 pensioners and students would be exempted from filing a tax return, was transformed by journalists into a grilling on tax evasion and the performance of the Tax Compliance Unit. The media savvy parliamentary secretary, however, did not refrain from answering pertinent questions on this issue...READ MORE >>

Businesses exasperated by government’s inaction on Lisbon targets
By Karl Schembri
Malta’s abysmal record in meeting the economic targets set by the Lisbon Strategy is seriously worrying business and industry representatives, who say they see no concrete measures yet forthcoming from the government. Industry representatives speaking to The Malta Financial and Business Times complained of “a complete lack of vision” from the government in creating competitiveness and developing human resources...READ MORE >>

Public sector sick leave doubles private
By James Debono
A total of 801,023 days of sick leave were lost in 2004. According figures supplied by the National Statistics Office, there were 137,267 gainfully employed persons in October 2004. This means that on average each gainfully occupied person (including the self employed) in Malta has taken an average of 5.9 days of sick leave. If one were to calculate the 20,000 persons whose primary occupation was a part time job, this figure will drop to an average of five days per worker. The figures issued by the Ministry for the Family and Social Solidarity also reveal a discrepancy between employees and those employed in the public sector.
Employees in the public sector are taking twice the amount of sick leave as salaried employees in the private sector. Yet the category, which takes the greatest amount of sick leave in Malta, are the self-employed
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INTERVIEW
The digital revolution
Melita Cable’s Franco Degabriele tells MATTHEW VELLA that digital television will be the norm in five years’ times as analogue TV enters its twilight years. Wave goodbye to those black decoder boxes...
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OPINION
Balancing the labour market
Education, Youth and Employment Minister Dr Louis Galea speaks at a
seminar on ‘Employment Issues – EU Developments and Implications’ and delves into achieving the right balance between having regulations to maintain labour market flexibility while encouraging job creation and removing barriers to employment...
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Reports pave way for qualified MLP approval of EU constitution

Government pushes ahead with plans for large residential and commercial centre at St Julians

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Editor: Saviour Balzan
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