(ANSA) - Rome, November 5 - Premier Matteo Renzi has said that Italy's regional government's should spend their budgets better and denied allegations that his executive was cutting funding to them for the health sector. "We have increased the money for the health sector from 110 billion euros to 111 billion (in the 2016 budget bill)," Renzi said in an interview with veteran TV journalist Bruno Vespa for an upcoming book.
"Now the issue is to force the regions to spend the money they have better, instead of moaning about what they would like to have".
The Italian Conference of Regions on Thursday unanimously voted to suspend their view on the government's budget bill as a series of round-tables got underway to discuss regional accounts, the President of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region Debora Serracchiani said.
But the governors say they are to get less than they were promised, even if the noimnal figure is higher, which means the increases are effectively cuts as they don't keep up with inflation.
The governor of Puglia, Michele Emiliano, said on Thursday that the regions were ready to "hand back the keys" if the government did not quickly approve a decree to help solve some of the accounting problems they face. The so-called "Save the Regions" decree is expected to be presented by the government on Friday.
Separately, a minority group of dissenting members of Renzi's Democratic Party (PD) presented 10 amendments to his budget bill, related to issues from the south of the country, to a diverted profits tax. They also want to eliminate a plan to raise the limit on cash transfers to 3,000 euros from 1,000 euros.
This has been criticised on the grounds that it could make tax evasion easier.