Forza Italia continues to insist on the Superbonus and proposes postponing the sugar tax until July 2025. After a weekend of open conflict within the government and the majority, this could be a compromise to avoid a rupture with Forza Italia. They are not only trying to prevent the introduction of the tax on sugary drinks starting in July, but also to rewrite the retroactive provision of the Superbonus, which was intended by the Ministry of Economy and Finance as another measure to reduce the “devastating” impact on the budget.
“We must prove that we are not braggarts or blowhards,” insists Antonio Tajani from Eur, where he is officially launching the campaign for the European elections. He assures that there will be “no new taxes, be they sugar or wealth taxes”. Furthermore, citizens, as Tajani has been saying since the government amendment to the Superbonus decree was filed, “must know that the State” keeps its promises. Not to mention that retroactivity, as proposed by Forza Italia in their amendments, would be “incompatible with the principles dictated by tax law”.
The rejection of retroactive application of deductions over 10 years (instead of 4 or 5) and the prohibition for banks and intermediaries to offset tax credits related to building bonuses with social security debts translates into a set of sub-amendments filed by Forza Italia in the Senate. The Finance Committee (led by Massimo Garavaglia of the League) plans to complete the examination between Tuesday and Wednesday in order to avoid delaying the final vote in the Chamber beyond Thursday, most likely with a vote of confidence.
The proposal from Forza Italia is to stop retroactivity and suggest that the deductions over 10 years only take effect once the revised and corrected decree becomes law. According to their intentions, restrictive measures for banks would then start from credits acquired after the conversion. However, finding funding remains a problem. While Forza Italia does not indicate the source for the latter measure, since the MEF’s provisions do not include effects on balances “as a precautionary measure”, they need 390 million euros per year to postpone the deduction spread. Forza Italia plans to find this funding through the most classic of sources, the fund for structural economic policy interventions. However, according to some sources, this fund may not have the necessary resources.
Forza Italia would also recover the 68 million euros needed to sterilize the sugar tax for another 6 months from the same fund. This tax has sparked protests from all sector operators. Assobibe has sent a countdown timer to around seventy politicians, government officials, and journalists, highlighting the imminent introduction of the tax that would jeopardize “over 5,000 jobs” and increase drink prices for consumers. Currently, there are no high-level government meetings scheduled to resolve this issue, which should be delegated to Parliament.
In the afternoon, the Undersecretary of the MEF, Federico Freni, met with Garavaglia and the rapporteur of the measure, Giorgio Salvitti, to discuss the approximately 350 amendments, in addition to the seventy sub-amendments filed not only by Forza Italia. All of them are expected to have a negative opinion, so another proposal from Forza Italia to remove regulation of waste disposal tariffs from ARERA, which had been warned against by the authority itself, is unlikely to be successful. The numbers in the committee do not concern the government or the Prime Minister’s party too much, even if Forza Italia manages to convince the opposition parties (both M5S and PD have already expressed their opinions). At this moment, they are observing the battle between Lega and Forza Italia.