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Figel: Let's Crush Corruption and We'll Find Money for New Reforms
Sunday 11 April 2010 Zoom in | Print page
(STV, April 11, O pat minut dvanast)
Opposition Christian Democrats (KDH) want to find the money needed for the measures they want to promote if they succeed in the general election on June 12 in combating corruption, KDH head Jan Figel said in a solo appearance on public-service Slovak Television's (STV) politics programme 'O pat minut dvanast' (5 Minutes to Twelve) on Sunday.
"The first response is not to steal and fighting corruption," said Figel when asked where to find money amid the economic crisis for such measures as doubling the tax bonus for parents of children under six years of age.
According to Figel, every larger tender currently pongs of corruption. "We lost in the emission (tender) maybe so much that would cost this measure (to support) families. Only in this one single case," emphasised Figel, referring to the extraordinarily cheap sale of the country's carbon dioxide quotas to a fishy firm called Interblue Group, which apparently resided in a garage in the U.S. before doing further moves to make the whole issue even more complicated.
Figel announced that KDH wants to help around 400,000 people that are currently unemployed to find job. The party wants to achieve this via a deduction reform that would reduce the overall tax and deduction burden, and thus stimulate creation of new jobs. "The deduction reform is a topic everybody is speaking about but currently there's no courage or consensus (to carry it out)," he said.
If KDH gets into Government after the election, the party wants to carry out deep reform of the education system. KDH also proposes year-long 'deduction holidays' for firms that hire the long-term unemployed and fresh graduates from schools. Furthermore, KDH will push for a reduction in taxes, deductions and healthcare tariffs, paid largely by employers. Meanwhile, deductions for healthcare should be abolished, with the system to be funded from the overall base.
KDH will also promote introduction of a 'debt brake' to prevent future generations getting into debt, with a ceiling for the public debt at 45 percent of GDP. Also, the Christian Democrats want to rapidly introduce the electronisation of public procurement, which should involve a central registry of public procurements in the country.
In order to improve drawing money from Eurofunds, the party wants to create four regional operational programmes for Eastern Slovakia, Central Slovakia, Western Slovakia and Bratislava.
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