Tombola

Government's determination to make money...
 

As if gambling in itself isn't bad enough... but what the government is said to be doing with its weekly televised tombola goes to show to what extent the government will go to collect money. The country has been spending as if there was no tomorrow, incurring debt like never before. Within days of joining the EU, our government has been reprimanded on several occasions already - lack of translators and interpreters, lack of competence of our representative to the EU, and now, the latest, the huge deficit Malta has plunged into that has to be rectified fast.

But how? Who is "accountable" for the unrestrained and useless spending? Who is going to suffer the brunt of the corrective measures to be implemented?

Of course, the Nationalist government is in a frenzy and wants to increase its revenue no matter whence, no matter how... snatch old ladies hand-bags if need be... as long as money is raked in.

We have seen increases in taxes - particularly an increase in VAT to 18%, introduction of VAT on previously exempt products like educational books and other printed matter, collection of tax arrears - even if this meant changing the Income Tax Management Act with an amendment that applies in retrospect, charging of interest at 1% per month - a penalty to those defaulting payment of tax or NI contributions by even a single day, TCU investigations of vulnerable individuals - the small guys, but of course not of notorious, high profile, tax evaders who might be feeding the party, the indiscriminate and relentless issuing of traffic fines to generally law-abiding citizens, going about their respective duties serving the public, the sacrilegious duties and taxes on sale of property calculated on arbitrary evaluations (not the actual purchasing price), illegitimate satellite dish fees..... etc etc etc.

The weekly televised game on our national TV, the famous tombola, was yet another target of a shameless government. It is understood that reprints of tickets are being sold at the same cost - but prize money has not been increased to reflect the sales. The consequence of this is that any winning ticket combination is most likely to have 2 (perhaps more depending on the number of re-print runs) owners (players) at any time. A particular cash prize is not given to each but it is shared out between the winners!

Let us say that each ticket costs Lm1 and there are 2000 possible tickets with different combination of numbers and the cash prize is Lm500. If 2000 tickets are sold then each Lm1 can win you the princely sum of Lm500. The Lotto Department (governmental) will net Lm2000 from sales less Lm500 prize money = Lm1500. Now if the LD decides to print 4000 tickets and the prize money is shared by 2 identical winning tickets, the revenue this time would be Lm4000 - Lm500 = Lm3500. Had the government been fairer by giving 2 x Lm500 prizes, the revenue would have been Lm3000. But no! Every morsel counts and Lm3500 is by far better than Lm3000 even if unfairly so! Who cares about the citizens (except on the eve of some election)! Isn't this a type of fraud? Or is it just the little citizen who can be charged with this and be subject to harsh legal action and punishment?

Whilst a handful of people continue to enjoy lucrative posts with salaries running to several thousands of Maltese Liri in annual salaries, each, plus the perks, all out of the national coffers, little old ladies who choose to delight themselves in a traditional and popular game, like the tombola, on a quiet Saturday afternoon, are denied the small, fair-and-square deal they pay for when purchasing their ticket!