Opposition Slams Government for Delays in Presenting Consolidation Measures

Bratislava, 2 September (TASR) - The current government has delivered only amateurish consolidation so far and is already behind the schedule with new measures for next year, opposition representatives told a press conference on Tuesday, adding that the government should, first of all, support the economy, cut its own spending, and stop putting the burden of its measures only on people and businesses. Although the coalition council has repeatedly discussed the measures, no agreement has been reached to date, as the coalition parties are not capable of governing the country, they added. Hoping to present its comments on the next year's consolidation package these days, the opposition Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) vice-chair Viliam Karas said they weren't able to do so, because the government has failed to present anything so far despite its promises. "This poses a threat to the stability of budgets, causing stress not only to entrepreneurs and municipalities, but also to companies, including state-owned ones, which cannot make forecasts or prepare their budgets. This is not how a country should be governed, especially not during a crisis," said Karas. Had the government implemented the measures proposed by KDH last year, they would bring in €3 billion, said KDH's economic expert and MP Jozef Hajko, adding that KDH's measures included cuts in personnel costs and other expenditures of the ministries, sale of state-owned property, higher taxes on gambling, and improved tax collection, as well as proposals to accelerate economic growth which is currently stagnating. Opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) MP Stefan Kiss said that, in a decent country, the debate on the consolidation package, along with presenting the measures, should have taken place sometime in May. What is even more absurd is that the government is putting off its own deadlines for presenting the package, he added. "Thanks to pressure exerted by the opposition, we know that contributions to the second pension pillar will not be cut, as originally considered, and that the headline value-added tax rate will not be raised," Kiss said, adding that the government has not presented any measures to boost the economy. "In fact, we are now facing a recession, and our inflation rate is one of the highest in the European Union," according to Kiss. He noted that PS would present its own proposals at a press conference on Thursday (4 September), inviting Finance Minister Ladislav Kamenicky (Smer-SD) to draw inspiration from them. jrg/mcs