Conte says Salvini tax-wedge quip facile

(ANSA) - Assisi, January 24 - Premier Giuseppe Conte said Friday opposition leader Matteo Salvini's sally against the government's tax-wedge cut was "facile irony".
    "Salvini is making facile irony", Conte told journalists in Assis where he signed a pact on fighting climate change.
    Earlier Salvini said "Conte's fiscal revolution amounts to just 46 euros a year" for workers.
    Conte replied that the bonus would be much higher.
    He said the government had put three billion euros into this year's budget to plump wage packets.
    Ruling Democratic Party (PD) leader Nicola Zingaretti said earlier that cuts to the labour-tax wedge approved by the cabinet late on Thursday will benefit around 16 million workers in Italy.
    The measures, which will help people on salaries of up to 40,000 euros a year, include an increase in an existing tax bonus for low earners from 80 euros a month to 100. "Finally things are starting to change," Zingaretti said via Twitter.
    "The salaries of 16 million Italians are increasing.
    "We are moving forward, working for Italian families and firms, for the growth of our country".
    Premier Conte expressed satisfaction too, saying the measures were "concrete deeds" before this weekend's regional elections in Emilia-Romagna and Calabria.
    The cabinet also set aside 28.4 million euros to address damage caused by extreme weather in Emilia-Romagna and 345 million for areas of central Italy hit by earthquakes in recent years.