BRATISLAVA, August 22, (WEBNOVINY) — The Entrepreneurs’ Association of Slovakia hails the Cabinet’s approval of the tax & levy reform. Head of the association Jan Oravec said that entrepreneurs expect lower administrative burden and trimmed-down health and social insurance premiums and payments to reduce costs of businesses and citizens related to these insurance contributions.
The association’s president appreciates the Cabinet’s ambition to reduce the burden of these levies, but thinks it a mistake to attain this goal in several steps. He also admitted that it would frustrate sole-proprietors. Another potential risk is that the Cabinet will not have time to return to the reform in this electoral term and the promise of lower premiums may remain unfulfilled, Oravec warned.
Entrepreneurs also provided a stance on the bailout mechanism. Pumping money into indebted economies will not resolve their problems. What’s more, it may complicate the situation of countries supposed to contribute to the bailout, including Slovakia. Some of the contributors will have to borrow finances, according to the President Oravec. “The present development given the so-called bailout fund confirms the attitude of the Entrepreneurs’ Association of Slovakia, which stated in the past several times that indebted states, unable to repay their debts, should default, similarly to insolvent companies in the private sector,” the statement of the association reads.
Centralization of economic policy or a euro-government is not a solution, either. That is merely an effort to use the complicated economic situation to speed up integration of the economic policy into single hands. It is the ambition of politicians who would like to see the EU turned into a federation, according to the ZPS president.
The support for the bailout fund in parliament is uncertain. The coalition SaS has long maintained that it will support neither an increase in the value of the EFSF nor the formation of the ESM. Voting of the SMER-SD remains open, too. The support of the opposition party would be necessary, should SaS insist on its position. However, SMER-SD leader Robert Fico has reiterated that his party would vote in favor of these matters only if the coalition secures its 79 votes. The opposition SNS is opposed to the bailout mechanism.
SITA