BRATISLAVA, December 17, (WEBNOVINY) — Members of the Slovak Parliament may have to convene once again before the end of the year. Speaker of the Slovak Parliament Richard Sulik will convene an unscheduled session due to the presidential veto of the revision to the income tax act. The legislators will meet on December 21 at 1 p.m., Sulik’s spokesperson Tatiana Tothova confirmed for SITA news agency. „Since the president has used the entire period and returned the law a day after the December session closed, I was forced to this solution. Although I do not like it, I have to gather MPs shortly before Christmas Eve to preserve the date of the law’s entry into force,“ explained Sulik. The veto could influence the state budget as it may affect its revenues. The postponed coming into force could disturb the Cabinet’s consolidation effort. The coalition needs 76 votes to override the presidential veto.
The revised law on income tax is part of the consolidation package tailored by Iveta Radicova’s Cabinet, aimed to reduce the general government deficit from this year’s nearly 8 percent of GDP to 4.9 percent of GDP in 2011. After the veto is overridden, nothing will avert publication of the norm in the Collection of Laws; thus, the initial date of its entry into force (January 1, 2011) can remain valid, according to the deputy chairperson of the Parliamentary Constitutional Law Committee Edita Pfundtner.
Head of the Economic Policy Institute and former State Secretary at the Finance Ministry Frantisek Palko partially blames the Cabinet for this situation, because they have underestimated the role of the president in the legislative process. When submitting a draft bill, the executive body must bear in mind the fact that the president too is part of the legislative process. Not only this Cabinet but also their predecessors underestimated this fact, he said.
SITA