The coalition negotiations in Austria that are poised to lead to a right-wing Freedom Party-led government seem to be doing well, with the partners showing progress in the negotiation of a budget.
And, what’s more, there are clear signs that Freedom Party (FPO) and conservative People’s Party (OVP) have devised a great way to save money: scrapping failed climate-change-related measures!
It’s also under consideration to collect more dividends from state-owned companies, according to them.
Reuters reported:
“The two parties, in coalition talks for just six days, held a news conference giving first details of how they would save 6.39 billion euros ($6.58 billion), an amount they had announced on Monday, to bring the budget deficit back within EU limits.”
Euroskeptic FPO was the most voted in September’s parliamentary election with around 29%.
But before the victors could attempt a coalition, they had to wait for a establishment ‘coalition of losers’ to fail first.
“One of the biggest items in their plan would be to save nearly 2 billion euros by eliminating the so-called ‘climate bonus’, a payout of hundreds of euros a year to each taxpayer intended to redistribute proceeds from carbon-emissions-based taxation introduced by the outgoing OVP-Greens coalition.”
There are other no-nonsense approaches to cutting expenses, like a billion Euros saved by cutting spending on media advertising and political appointees.
“FPO budget spokesman Hubert Fuchs said 430 million euros would be raised from dividends from stakes in companies held by the state, beyond the amount that the government would ordinarily expect to collect.”
The coalition also aims to save 65 million euros by ending an exemption on car insurance tax for electric cars.
“’There are roughly 200,000 electric cars in Austria. They benefit from almost 600 million euros in subsidies in total from various sources. Some of those are tax breaks that we believe are unfair and inappropriate, and we have therefore decided to act accordingly’, Fuchs said.”
They will also end the tax exemption for solar-panel installations and will levy a new tax on power and energy companies’ windfall profits.
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