SaS: Gov't Expectations Overblown, Consolidation Measures to Yield Less

Bratislava, September 17 (TASR) - The newly-unveiled consolidation measures will yield less income to the state than planned and common people of Slovakia are going to bear the brunt of the pain, opposition SaS Vice-chair Marian Viskupic claimed on Tuesday. "Every single citizen will pay more in their taxes, levies and fees. When the state comes up with new taxes for firms, new levies, new charges for firms, and, unfortunately, this government has come up with a lot of them in the material passed, the overwhelming bulk of these additional costs will simply be carried over to the people. General estimates say that about 80 percent of any new costs you saddle businesses with are simply carried over to their clients and that means the people of this country," said Viskupic. Viskupic added that the only planned cuts on the expenditure side of the state is the lay-off of state clerks, estimated to save about €124 million out of the total €2.7 billion. In his view, the government should entertain the release of at least 5,000 state employees. Most of these measures will have negative impacts on Slovakia's economy, which is set to slow down. "Because of this, I'm convinced that the government will collect less from these measures than it has originally planned. Simply put, this will be a severe blow to our economy, a severe blow to its competitiveness and a severe blow to every single entrepreneur," added the SaS vice-chair. mf/mcs