Slovaks cannot expect VAT rate to be decreased, as can be expected from the law on budgetary responsibility.
Only a few days after the national congress of the ruling Smer party, where Prime Minister and party chair Robert Fico said that the VAT will not be increased, Smer MPs make specific steps to this end. The bill on the value-added tax which is now debated in the parliament introduces a set of minor changes concerning administration of taxes or using the cash registries. Smer MPs will file an amending proposal.
Smer MP Ladislav Kamenický wants the measure securing the decrease of VAT to the original 19 percent after the budget deficit falls under 3 percent of the gross domestic product, the SITA newswire wrote. The measure of temporary increasing the VAT from 19 to 20 percent was included in the law on VAT in 2010, after the coalition parties in the then prime minister Iveta Radičová agreed to it. The increased VAT was to be effective only until the public finance deficit falls below the threshold of 3 percent of GDP. In 2013, Slovakia’s budget met this thresholsd, which was also confirmed by the spring prognosis of Eurostat, the EU’s statistics office.
The opposition slammed the tricky steps of government, citing the amount of more than €22 million. The discussion about the draft bill on the VAT is slated to continue on the afternoon of July 3, SITA wrote.
(Source: SITA)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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