(ANSA) - Rome, July 3 - There will be no supplementary
corrective budget in 201, Economy Minister Giovanni Tria said
Tuesday.
Tria said the goal was to boost growth while leaving fiscal
targets unchanged.
He said the government would work to get room for
manoeuvering from the EU.
Tria said that the ministry would study the government's
proposed 'flat tax' within a "coherent spending framework".
The flat tax, to be introduced for businesses this year and
households next, is in fact a dual tax with rates of 15% and
20%, the cut-off being 80,000 euros a year.
It was a flagship campaign pledge of the anti-migrant
Euroskeptic League party of Interior Minister Matteo Salvini,
who is also deputy premier in the populist League-Five Star
(M5S) government along with anti-establishment M5S leader Luigi
Di Maio, the labour and industry minister.
The government's "primary aim is to pursue economic growth
within the framework of social cohesion through a fiscal policy"
that contemplates "the ongoing reduction of the debt-to-GDP
ratio", Tria told the House and Senate Budget Committees on
Tuesday.
"Further, we will continue to move in a direction that does
not worsen the structural balance," he said.
Tria also warned of the risk of a "moderate" downwards
revision of GDP growth forecasts for 2018.
"Though the outlook is positive recent data suggest that
growth will continue throughout the second quarter but at a
slower rate" than during the same period in 2017, the minister
said.
"The most recent internal estimates suggest that the second
quarter will show a similar growth rate" to the first, Tria
added.
The economy minister also told the budget committees that it
is not the government's "intention" to "adopt any corrective
measure during the course of the year".
"It is still possible to close the 2018 balance with the
scheduled debt confirmed in the Economic and Financial Document
(Italy's economic planning blueprint)," Tria said.
Tria added that Italy needs a turnaround in investments or it
will be tough to negotiate on them in the EU.
He also said one of the government's priorities is to first
cut taxes on low and medium income households and small
businesses.
The government is united and no one want to break the budget,
Tria said, addressing speculation Salvini will want to push
through the flat tax at the expense of EU parameters.
A property tax is not on the agenda, Tria concluded.
No supplementary budget in 2018 - Tria
Will 'study' flat tax within coherent fiscal framework