Why intervention on the tax wedge proves worthwhile, you need to invest at least 10 billion euros, “the minimum to make a leap in quality and give a boost to growth. You absolutely have to find them, it's fundamental”. Word of George Squinzi, number one of Confindustria, who yesterday met the prime minister, Enrico Letta.
The amount requested by via dell'Astronomia is undoubtedly more substantial than the one that the Treasury intends to make available, above all because at the same time it is necessary to find the resources for two other objectives: to return to the 3% ceiling that Europe imposes on the deficit-GDP ratio (estimates for 2013, at the moment, speak of 3,1%) and also canceling the second installment of the Imu, due in December, for all Italian taxpayers.
Given the difficulty of accounting commitments and the narrow margins for manoeuvre, to intervene on the tax wedge Squinzi proposes to draw on the European funds that still remain to be spent: 28 billion for the period 2007-2013, of which over 21 in the southern regions, out of the approximately 50 available for the entire period.
“Every effort must be made to introduce these 28 billion into the economic system – added the President of the industrialists –, we cannot lose even a single euro, as well as being economically a waste it is not morally acceptable. We cannot afford it also out of respect for all the efforts that citizens and businesses have made to allow the excessive deficit procedure to be closed".
According to Squinzi, the priority areas for using these resources are credit, investment in businesses, the redevelopment of public assets, the promotion of employment through the reduction of the tax wedge for new hires.
