Decisive hours for the Spending review. The Council of Ministers which will have to issue the second decree on public spending cuts - the most substantial one - has not yet been officially convened, but sources in Palazzo Chigi believe that the meeting can take place today at 17pm or tomorrow at the latest. Doubts still remain about measures that the Government will choose to adoptbut for sure there will be no cut in the provinces. They will also skip the 20% cut to public bodies and the reorganization of small municipalities. These three interventions will be postponed to another legislative decree which will perhaps arrive next month.
Other standards have been excerpt (barring last-minute second thoughts) to meet the demands of the trade unions, which on Tuesday met Prime Minister Mario Monti. They should therefore not appear in the text the 10% reduction in permits, the freeze on tariffs and the cuts envisaged for Cafs and patronages.
On the table of the next CDM, however, the measures developed by the individual ministries will arrive together with the Bondi plan, from which 2-3 billion of the 5 of minimum intervention that the Government aims to implement already for this year (but, according to the latest rumors, the total value of the decree could reach 8 billion).
These are the savings needed to hit the first goal on the list: avoid the automatic increase in VAT in OctoberThe increase will be postponed to July. The decree also establishes the "reduction of the VAT increase starting from 2014" and the "elimination of the further increase of 0,5 points from 2014". The other priorities for which funding needs to be found are the interventions in earthquake-affected areas and the solution of exodus question. Two emergencies that caused the spending review bill to rise during construction.
Meanwhile, the first decree has already become law. After the go-ahead from the Chamber, yesterday also came that from the Senate, which gave the go-ahead with 203 votes in favour, 9 against and 33 abstentions. The text provides for the creation of an interministerial committee for the review of public spending. It is chaired by the Prime Minister and an extraordinary commissioner for the rationalization of expenditure for the purchase of goods and services of the Public Administration. The current commissioner, Enrico Bondi, will have powers of inspection and will remain in office for one year.
