The government’s plans to finance the post-flood reconstruction are slowly taking shape. Although Prime Minister Robert Golob has implicitly claimed that they will first try to get the money from wherever they can and only then introduce new taxes, the new tax is clearly a fact, and that has become clear as day before the government has even actually started to look for money elsewhere.
As Luka Mesec, the Minister of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities from the Left party (Levica), said on Thursday, the government is planning to introduce a compulsory tax that all citizens will have to pay. The plan is that citizens will have to pay around 0.3 percent of their income tax and the companies 0.8 percent of their pre-tax profits.
According to the most recent announcements, the tax will have to be paid in two instalments, one this year and one next year. It will be levied by the Financial Administration of the Republic of Slovenia. The contribution can be avoided with two “solidarity” Saturdays.
Reaching into the taxpayers’ wallets should be the last step
The leader of the opposition, Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS) President Janez Janša, said in an appearance on POP TV on Monday that the introduction of new taxes would be a test of sorts for the government: “Firstly, all possible grants from the European solidarity funds, and some of them domestic, should be collected. There is room for manoeuvre in the Recovery Fund, which must be used. It is also very important that the government demonstrates that it has first taken the money from anywhere that the said money is not absolutely necessary, and only then can it reach into the wallets of the taxpayer.”
Well, the government of Robert Golob has clearly decided to start with the taxpayers’ wallets instead.
Moja Dolenjska
