The government has not abandoned the idea of cutting personal income tax but the decision will be taken in the autumn. At the moment, that is, when the Budget law for 2018 will be presented. Pier Carlo Padoan, interviewed by Il Messaggero explains that "the exchange between VAT and the tax wedge, suggested by the OECD, is a form of internal devaluation that benefits of exporting companies which are also the most competitive”. Despite the critical positions expressed within the majority, Padoan does not hide that it is "an option supported by good regions" which means that its economic validity is objective but that decisions on VAT are political and therefore also linked to opportunity assessments.
On the cut to Irpef, which disappeared from the Def, the minister replies that “The budget law for next year is all to be discussed. The Def only contains a general overview. The hypothesis has not been excluded, we are not yet in the stage of explicit measures”.
To avert the application of the safeguard clauses next year, which would increase VAT and excise duties by 19 billion, Padoan explains that "the main road passes through further progress by the tax administration in the fight against evasion, through further margins of efficiency expenditure and for other items that will be discussed as serenely as possible, such as tax expenses".
In a passage of the interview it also concerns the theme of the reduction of the public debt and the resumption of privatisations, for companies such as the Fs and the Post Office, opposed by some ministers such as Graziano Delrio (Transport). In the Def the target was reduced to just 5 billion. Padoan admits that there has been an outcry on the possibility of recovering 8 billion but this does not mean that he states "we are satisfied with a little less". “I presented in the cabinet – says the minister – the hypothesis on the basis of which the MEF could sell its shareholdings to CDP, while maintaining full control over the management of the subsidiaries and CDP could carry out active management of this portfolio. It is a question of implementing financial mechanisms – he continued – focused not so much on the sale of a single company but on the idea that the wealth of public property is reaggregated and partially valued on the market”.
Transferring the shares of investee companies held by the Ministry of Economy to Cassa Depositi e Prestiti in order to cut the public debt could set in motion an operation valued at 20 billion.
