15
November 2001.
Parents
of children attending private, independent, schools have finally received the
long awaited government assistance promised a long long time ago. The cheque I
received for 2 ("fee-paying") children in primary level did not even
match the increase in the tuition fee for the scholastic year 2001-2002, let
alone...! The increase, this year being Lm180, is over and above the fee of
Lm930, the sum I paid for them last year. The cheque sent by the government
was for Lm140! This assistance was supposed to have been paid in July but was
not issued until now - 4 months later! Try sending your tax dues late and the
Inland Revenue Department (IRD) will charge you 1% per month additional tax, as a
penalty! Clearly, what is good for the goose is certainly not good for the
gander, according to our MPs.
To
add some insult, the cheque was described as "an assistance to children
attending private schools". Hey! Who is paying their bills? And as if
that was not enough, as if to rub salt into an inflamed, gaping wound.... the cheque was made
payable to my wife only! Just to make things
clear, my wife has not earned (nor won) a single cent in 11 years (quite the
contrary..... you married guys out there should know what I mean) and all our income is solely the fruit of the sweat of
my own brow and having miraculously survived the recurrent, disfiguring trauma inflicted by the insatiable
appetite of the IRD monster for juicy living flesh and its unquenchable thirst
for life-sustaining blood which is regurgitated into some useless project by
the government!
Malta,
a developing, democratic, European country; a civilized nation. Dream on!
Having seen a documentary on the Taliban Regime's atrocities on women in Afghanistan, I dare say that
Malta is slowly but surely metamorphosizing into the western version of the Taliban-style regime! Maybe not in any regards to
religion, but where finances are concerned many of us are heavily down-trodden, living in utter gloom and sheer
despair. There are exceptions of course...
(a) those who, without any hesitation or
shame, are ever ready to raise their middle finger at the authorities and
continue about their business and tax evasion and (b) those who are members or staunch, blind supporters of the "Taliban
regime".
What does this
government's financial aid for private education really mean? Who are the
"beneficiaries"? One may recall that Education (and Health) were
eligible for VAT refunds paid on goods and services relating to these
professions.
Members of these two professions were "zero rated with credit" until
December 2000. As
from this year (2001), this no longer holds true; the government deprived the
Education and Health Sectors from the privilege to claim VAT back. It
follows that the providers of these two essential services, particularly the
former, had to raise their fees. In my case, the fees rose not just by 15% to
compensate for VAT lost to the school where my children receive their
education, but by nearly 20%.
What this particular Educational Institution did was to inflict a heftier
penalty than the VAT it was denied! The government cheque
of Lm140 falls short by 22.2% on the increase alone and works out to be only a
meager 12.6% of the total fee payable this year at the least expensive of all
the local independent schools.
Parents have thus been grossly cheated. The government has failed miserably in
fulfilling the pre-election promise; the assistance has not even started to
address the tuition fee itself let alone all other expenses related to the
education of our children.
This year, the government issued a one-off "cash" payment. Next year
the financial aid for education is to take the form of a tax relief /
rebate. Now I wonder what magic formula Minister John Dalli has up his sleeve?
One frightening logical thought is that high income earners whose earnings are subject
to the higher tax rates are likely to benefit most and those who earn little
and do not pay tax, will get no relief, hence no financial assistance! Who are the winners and
the loser in this mathematical game?
I
have only skimmed superficially over the matter. As a parent of three children
in a private school, tuition fees are not the only expenses I pay. Books,
stationery, school photocopies (not at all cheap!!), uniforms, sports wear,
the weekly (daily at the start of the scholastic year) collection for something or
other, transport (for most parents), etc add up to a
significant total that should be added to the burdensome tuition fee (and some
schools charge much heftier tuition fees!). You may not know that all
these items (in addition to tuition) are provided free by the government (from our taxes) to parents
whose children attend state schools. What is even more striking is that
only a very low percentage of these children ever manage to learn enough to be
able to give any significant return to the country that has invested so
heavily in. We parents who send our children to private, fee-charging schools
are saving the government millions; and what do we get in return? Harassment
for not paying our taxes and penalties for paying tax dues late! Who really
owes who?
Who
is the government trying to kid with the Lm 140 cheque sent?
