Interior Minister Angelino
Alfano proposed Thursday what he said is a wide-ranging package
of family tax cuts backed by special laws, saying he wants to
jack up Italy's feeble birth rate and help people "who make
babies".
"We want Italy to become the country of cradles," Alfano
said in a surprise major policy statement - to be put to Premier
Matteo Renzi - heralding the end of the summer political truce,
"we have worked for a full packet of special anti-crisis laws".
Alfano, leader of the conservative New Democratic Centre
party in Renzi's coalition, disclosed the NCD's plans to make
tax cuts to help families worth 7.5 billion euros as well as
striking a "blow" at IMU, the unpopular tax on purchase of first
homes.
Renzi, from the former communist Democratic Party, also had
pledged to slash or abolish IMU on first homes but Alfano's
comments were the most detailed government statement so far on
support for families as Italy struggles to bolster economic
growth and accelerate recovery from six years of stagnation and
recession marked by sky high youth unemployment.
Alfano, formerly considered the chosen heir to former
premier Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right political empire until
the two men squabbled, proposed "a sharp blow at taxation on the
first home and a very strong fiscal support for families,
reductions and deductions for the new born, for the expenses on
first children and education, from nappies to books, and cash to
families who make babies, but also to families who take care of
old people at home".
"We have a plan for 7.5 billion that is very precise and
solid both from the point of view of costs and of cover, a
'family act,' an organic and organised plan of support to those
who have stood up to the crisis and supported Italy". Tens of
thousands of Italians have emigrated during the crisis while
capital flight has been a major problem the government has
sought to tackle with special deals for people who bring money
back to the nation.
The tax cuts would be funded by "a robust cut in public
spending to be earmarked for families and firms," Alfano said.
"We need special laws for a few years that will enable a
shake-up in tax, in bureaucracy and stronger support for
families," Alfano continued.
His comments come following six years of stagnation and
recession in Italy. The country only began to see the first
signs of growth in its economy earlier this year.
"We are not facing normal situation or living in an ordinary
period of history," Alfano said. "This crisis has lasted longer
than the last World War." Alfano said the government had made
"some important decisions within the work market and on Article
18", the Italian labour law that hitherto made it difficult for
companies to dismiss workers on open-ended contracts.
He said they had made changes to "the provision of justice"
and had shown "tenacity" in bringing about constitutional
reform. The changes were spearheaded by Renzi in his Jobs Law
with support from across the spectrum.
Alfano explained that "We need special laws for a few years
that will enable a shake-up in tax, in bureaucracy and stronger
support for families," Alfano said.
"We are not facing a normal situation or living in an ordinary
period of history," Alfano said. "This crisis has lasted longer
than the last World War," he claimed, referring to the conflict
that left Italy in ruins.
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