Carlo Cottarelli, the commissioner
in charge of the Italian government's spending review, is ready
to resign over plans to use savings he has found for future
spending programs, according to newspaper reports Thursday.
Cottarelli "has one-foot-and-a-half out the door," said
newspaper La Repubblica which, along with the Corriere della
Sera, described growing frustration by Cottarelli who for months
has been pouring over budget items to find inefficiencies and
savings for the government of Premier Matteo Renzi.
The newspapers reported that Cottarelli is prepared to
return to his former post as director of fiscal affairs with the
International Monetary Fund.
Cottarelli, whose original task included finding savings to
fund cuts to labour taxes, said Wednesday in a post on his blog
that the plan seemed to have changed in ways that did not make
sense.
"If you use the resources from expenditure savings to
increase spending itself, the savings cannot be used to reduce
taxation on labor," said Cottarelli.
Newspapers were reporting that if Cottarelli does resign,
Renzi has already lined up a replacement.
Cottarelli was appointed last fall by Renzi's predecessor,
Enrico Letta, who asked the spending review commissioner to find
savings to fund a reduction in labour taxes in the expectation
that would ultimately boost employment and help the economy.
In his blog post, Cottarelli said that he suspected the
government would instead be using his spending review "as a tool
to fund...new expenses".
La Repubblica reported that Renzi's government may need to
cut its spending by as much as 16 billion euros this year to
meet its budget targets.
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