BRATISLAVA, November 19, (WEBNOVINY) — Finance Minister Ivan Miklos (SDKU-DS) has admitted that the looming threat of a stopgap budget in 2012 has not been averted completely. However, he believes that leader of Ordinary People, independent MP Igor Matovic will keep his promise and vote in favor of the draft budget. Matovic wants in return for the support for the blueprint the freeze of salaries of politicians and changes to the funding of political parties.
On air of Slovak Radio, the fiscal hawk emphasized that the coalition agreed upon the budget a few days before the vote of confidence in the Iveta Radicova Cabinet and members of the Ordinary People accepted the draft. Matovic did not raise any additional conditions. Miklos assumes that Matovic will support the budget if he sticks to his words. Moreover, representatives of the coalition have also met this week and Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) agreed to the settled solution. Party leader Richard Sulik mentioned twenty-one votes, which include also three votes of Ordinary People. “I suppose that Mr. Sulik will negotiate with deputies, on whose behalf he signed the coalition treaty,” the minister remarked.
The minister is not opposed to a debate with opposition parties SNS and SMER but perceives their proposals as unrealistic. In his opinion, measures suggested by SNS would ruin the budget and SMER’s concepts would harm the Slovak economy. “They would damage the creation of new jobs, future economic growth and future investments and, thus, future jobs and such measures are unacceptable for us,” Miklos announced. SMER’s proposal to tax wealthy companies and individuals would result in a departure of companies employing most people. “Really wealthy people, like your benefactors, Mr. Pociatek, or even you, for instance, will dodge this tax very easily. You will tax those skilled, the managers,” the minister addressed his predecessor. The center-right parties would rather cancel child benefits for well-off individuals, introduce environmental tax, property tax and implement spending cuts. Miklos pledged they would not increase the VAT rate or direct taxes.
Jan Pociatek of SMER-SD is convinced that the proposed tax on the wealthy is not so severe that it would trigger departure of rich entities or tax evasion. The former finance minister warned that common people would be taxed unless public funds were increased in the way suggested by his party and that would be a much worse scenario. Pociatek noted that the center-right parties also mentioned the harming effects on the economy when SMER came up with the bank levy concept but they ultimately proposed it themselves.
SITA