The Slovenia Times

No Agreement on Real estate Tax

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DL head Gregor Virant told the press after today's meeting of the coalition party heads that a lighter version of the new tax could be supplemented by an "austerity law number two" but failed to go into details.

His proposal was rejected outright by the fellow coalition DeSUS.

"An austerity law is out of the question," said DeSUS deputy president Tomaž Gantar, suggesting a crisis tax would be more "sensible". But this was in turn rejected by Virant, who said his party was absolutely against any kind of new tax, stressing that further taxation of labour would be "unfair, especially towards the youth".

The head of the coalition SocDems Igor Lukšič on the other hand again did not mince his words in criticising DeSUS, saying its president Karl Erjavec had had a sudden change of heart with regard to the real estate tax after polls revealed its unpopularity.

He added that Erjavec had been part of the Janez Janša-led governments that substantially reduced tax revenue and that the new tax would have not been necessary "if it weren't for Erjevec and Janša".

Arguing that flexing political muscles when it comes to tax policy does not bode well for the country at all, Lukšič said the tax needed to be adopted and later polished up where necessary.

The back-and-forth between the two coalition parties is giving rise to speculation that Prime Minister Alenka Bratušek might tie the government-backed tax bill to a confidence vote.

The government expects the proposed real estate tax to generate EUR 200m in budget revenue. Should the lawmakers fail to endorse it in parliament, the prime minister has said cuts to pensions, welfare and education would be inevitable.

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