Malta Budget 2025 Proposes €300 Grants for Walking Commuters & SME Tax Breaks—A Green Leap for the Islands

Grants for walking commuters and business tax breaks among SME budget proposals
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Valletta’s morning rush hour is no longer just a blur of honking horns and exhaust fumes. As the 2025 Budget Bill edges closer to debate, a quietly revolutionary clause is doing the rounds in the capital’s cafés: up-front grants of up to €300 for employees who pledge to walk or cycle to work at least four days a week. Coupled with a fresh 15 % tax cut for micro- and small enterprises that sign up to the scheme, the proposal is being heralded—not by lobbyists, but by shoemakers in Għargħur and pastizz vendors in Marsa—as the moment Malta’s “ħanut tal-kantuniera” finally gets a seat at the green table.

For a nation where the car is still king, the idea is almost cheeky. Yet the numbers speak louder than the morning ħobż tal-Malta delivery vans. Transport Malta estimates that 42 % of all commuter trips in Malta are under three kilometres—roughly the distance from St Julian’s to Sliema. If only a third of those switched to shanks’ pony, the island would shave 20,000 tonnes of CO₂ off its annual footprint. That is the equivalent of grounding every Air Malta flight to Catania for two full months.

How the grant would work
Under the draft scheme, workers register through Jobsplus and upload a weekly screenshot from a pedometer or cycling app. After eight consecutive qualifying weeks, the €300 lands in their bank account. Employers, meanwhile, clock up a double bonus: they can offset 15 % of their corporate tax bill against the cost of shower facilities, secure bike racks, or even subsidised running shoes. The catch? They must keep at least 30 % of their workforce enrolled for 12 months. Micro-enterprises—defined locally as firms with fewer than ten employees—may deduct 100 % of any capital outlay straight off their tax due, up to a ceiling of €10,000.

A cultural shift on two feet
Walkability is not new to Malta; our medieval street plans pre-date the combustion engine by several centuries. But the last twenty years of ribbon development have turned the coast road into a parking lot. “My father delivered bread on a Bajaj trike,” recalls Etienne Bezzina, owner of a family-run stationery shop in Birkirkara. “I drive a van because I have to. If the government pays me to walk to my suppliers in Qormi, I’ll do it—and my cholesterol will thank me.” The proposal taps into a deeper Maltese instinct: the evening “passjata”, still alive in village cores from Żebbuġ to Żabbar, where grandparents parade in their Sunday best. Extending that ritual to the daily commute reframes the walk not as a chore but as a cultural act.

Community impact beyond euro signs
Streets emptied of cars are streets reclaimed by children. In Gżira, local councillor Maria Buttigieg has already painted temporary hopscotch grids on Triq ix-Xatt to test what “school-street” mornings could feel like. “We had 200 kids playing before the first lesson bell,” she laughs. Multiply that across 68 local councils, and the grant scheme becomes a stealth investment in public health. The Mater Dei Hospital diabetes clinic estimates that if 10 % of commuters walked an extra 3 km daily, the state could save €1.7 million in insulin prescriptions within five years.

Not everyone is lacing up just yet. The Gozo Business Chamber warns that ferry queues could lengthen as cyclists compete for deck space, while the Malta Employers’ Association wants clarity on how to verify screenshots. Yet even critics agree on one point: the proposal reframes SMEs from tax-shy corner shops into protagonists of the green transition.

What happens next
The Budget Bill is set for its second reading on 16 October. Amendments are expected, but the core measure—walking grants and SME tax credits—has cross-party support. If approved, the scheme launches on 1 January 2025, with the first payouts hitting accounts before Carnival. Until then, Valletta’s shoe-shine men report a surge in requests for extra-thick rubber soles. As one cobbler on Merchant Street quipped, “The writing’s on the pavement.”