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Hrusovsky: Learning About Gov't Policies from Media Unacceptable
Monday 23 August 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, August 23 (TASR) - The planned changes in the tax and deduction system as announced by Finance Minister Ivan Miklos (SDKU-DS) and Labour Minister Jozef Mihal (Freedom and Solidarity/SaS) last week will be the focus of the Coalition Council session on Tuesday, TASR learnt on Monday.
The joint press conference of Miklos and Mihal last week provoked criticism by junior coalition parties the Christian Democrats (KDH) and Most-Hid, as the Miklos's and Mihal's parties hadn't discussed the measures with the junior partners. To prevent such problems taking place in the future, KDH proposes introducing a rule to discuss restrictive measures at Coalition Council sessions first.
According to KDH whip Pavol Hrusovsky, it is unacceptable that coalition partners learn about planned measures from the media.
Miklos and Mihal have proposed cancelling tax-exempt parts of the tax base for special-purpose savings, life insurance and additional pension savings. The tax-exempt part of the tax basis will remain in place only for so-called active incomes, which would make incomes from work more advantageous than those coming from capital.
Another measure aims to unify lump-sum allowances at a united level of 30 percent in place of the three current levels of 25 percent, 40 percent and 60 percent.
Political analyst Juraj Marusiak last week told TASR that by omitting the two junior parties, SDKU and SaS violated coalition agreements.
Furthermore, observers speculate whether the two ministers didn't also circumvent Prime Minister Iveta Radicova (SDKU-DS), who was on holiday in Croatia at the time and whose position in the Government seems to be not as firm as that of SDKU chairman and Foreign Affairs Minister Mikulas Dzurinda, who, after a decade as party chairman, has deeply-rooted allegiances with all the party's nominees.
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