The global economic crisis is affecting the Slovak economy which is strongly oriented towards the car-making and electronics industries, said Roman Karlubík, vice-president of the Association of Employer Unions and Organisations (AZZZ) at its conference ending on February 13.
“The crisis will test whether legislation adopted during an economic boom - the Labour Code, for example, is appropriate for hard times as well,” he said. He expects the impact of the crisis to reach a peak in the second half of 2009, the TASR newswire wrote. According to Karlubík, there are several factors influencing the scale of the crisis.
“We need to reassess relevant legislation, which wasn’t prepared for a crisis situation. Shortening the period for returning excessive VAT payments from 60 days to 30 will be the most beneficial move for companies,” he said, adding that increasing the income-tax deductible minimum will boost people’s purchasing power.
He said he considers public-private partnership (PPP) projects to be very helpful, especially those involving reconstruction of motorways and other projects using funds of the EU.
He also suggested lowering levies for all businesses, lowering the income tax, amending the Labour Code, and improving law enforcement as tools to tackle the economic crisis. Public expenditures and public procurements should be made more effective as well he said. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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