Tomas: Social Enterprises Act Will Be Moved to January House Session

Bratislava, 8 December (TASR) - An amendment to the law on social economy and social enterprises will be moved to the parliamentary session that will be held in January, Labour, Social Affairs and the Family Minister Erik Tomas (Voice-SD) stated on Monday at a meeting of the House committee for social affairs, adding that he wants to create space for discussion with the opposition and resolve some of the disputed points of this law. The opposition has objections to an increase in value-added tax (VAT) for social enterprises from the current 5 percent to 19 percent and to the planned reduction in compensation payments for social enterprises. Tomas has responded by stating that scrapping the full-year commitment will be only thing included, meaning that this generous contribution won't apply for the whole year. He added that space will be created for negotiations with the opposition. In practice, according to him, this means that the compensation contribution will be paid under the current arrangements until the law is changed. Only the full-year nature of the compensation contribution will be scrapped. Opposition MP Vladimir Ledecky (SaS) welcomed the postponement of the bill to the January session, as social enterprises wouldn't have time to prepare for the changes contained in the bill by 1 January next year. He also welcomed the fact that Tomas has backed down from the planned reduction in compensation payments for social enterprises and changes to VAT. "Public pressure and pressure from the opposition partly had an effect on the minister, but the debate in the House on the bill was very colourful, while social enterprises, for which the bill would have been devastating as of January, also made their voices heard," said MP Martina Bajo Holeckova (SaS). am/df