Høgre wants all public enterprises to cut 1 per cent in their budget. That would save the state about 4 billion in expenses next year. Today it is Høgre’s turn to present its proposal for the national budget. For the first time since 2013, Høgre has little to say about his thoughts on the national budget. It only shows how the money would be used if the party was still in power. The article will be updated while Høgre presents its alternative budget from 10 o’clock on Tuesday morning. Courting the families Today, Høgre’s deputy head Henrik Asheim presented his thoughts in news’s Political Quarter. The most important family financial initiatives are increasing child benefit (NOK 3.3 billion) and increasing the personal allowance for everyone by NOK 5,000 (NOK 3.3 billion) TIGHT: The Høgre trio Henrik Asheim, Tone W. Trøen and Helge Orten present Høgre’s budget proposal at a press conference on Tuesday morning. Photo: Håvard Grønli / news Every autumn the government presents its proposal for the state budget for the next year. The proposal will be negotiated in the Storting before a decision is made on the state’s income and expenditure for the coming year. The party that is not in government also prepares its proposal for the budget. Up until today, Høgre has not presented where they will get the money for child benefit and other initiatives. Today, Asheim said that Høgre does not want the unemployed to receive holiday pay supplements on their unemployment benefits. This gives about one billion in reduced expenses when compared with the government’s budget proposal. Høgre announces that they will spend NOK 2 billion less in oil money than the government. The state must save four billion But Høgre will get the big money from the public budget. Thus, the stage is set for a Høgre classic: the ABE reform. In the years Høgre was in government, they used a principle that all public enterprises should reduce the budget a little every year. The most common was that the cut was 0.5 per cent. – We can take in an estimated two billion from the ABE reform when it is 0.5 per cent, Asheim says today. – But the government is asking everyone to tighten up this year. We also believe that the public sector should be able to do that. We are therefore adding an additional 0.5 per cent to the reform. This means that all public enterprises would be told to cut 1 per cent from their budget if Høgre had the power. – It is a one-off measure, says Asheim. Can affect people CUT: Aps Frode Jacobsen believes Høgre’s proposal means welfare cuts. Photo: Vidar Ruud / NTB The criticism of the ABE reform has often been about the fact that it is not targeted, but is a cheese grater cut that means that all businesses have to save. The Labor Party believes that politics also affects people. – The cuts in the public sector are also welfare cuts, objected the Labor Party’s Frode Jacobsen in the debate against Asheim early today. – This means, for example, less money for Nav to carry out outreach work. – Many families and businesses find it tougher. It is not brutal to ask the state to save one percent. Social Democratic Denmark has two percent, argues Asheim. More expensive fuel If Høgre ruled, it would become more expensive to fill up with petrol and diesel. The party will drop the reduction in the road use tax that the government is planning for next year, which will save the state around NOK 1.5 billion. “We want it to pay off to choose green and make it easy for the CO2 tax to work. By doing this, we cut 165,000 tonnes more CO2 than what the government proposes,” the party writes. The party wants to make long-range electric cars more affordable and increase the ceiling for VAT on electric cars for cars that cost more than NOK 600,000. Accepts parts of the tax tightening Høgre plans to bring in about 2 billion less in wealth tax in 2023 than the government wants to do. But that means that they accept the wealth tax level that the Støre government has ruled on this year. Støre’s government increased the wealth tax when they took over Høgre’s proposal for the state budget for 2022. Høgre is therefore not going back to the wealth tax level at which Erna Solberg governed. In NHO, the companies are satisfied with cuts in public expenditure, but the organization believes that it would be possible to prioritize tax relief higher. – The Liberals also found room to also remove the increase in dividend tax. This indicates that there may be a greater scope for tax cuts than what Høgre shows, says deputy managing director Anniken Hauglie, who was formerly a minister in Erna Solberg’s government. – It is very surprising that Høgre accepts most of the government’s tax shock in the state budget, they will keep around DKK 40 billion in tax tightening, says FrP’s fiscal policy spokesperson Hans Andreas Limi. – Høgre makes it worse for those who struggle the most, says Aps Rigmor Aasrud after seeing Høgre’s entire plan. – They prioritize lower taxes for people with large assets and high incomes, and the bill is sent to the unemployed, those on disability benefits and those with chronic illnesses who need a dentist. Cuts aid Høgre cuts just under a billion in aid in its proposal for the national budget. “Growth in the aid budget will be somewhat reduced”, is the scarce comment in Høgre’s budget document. To finance their proposals, they save on, among other things, the following points that differ from the Støre government’s investments: 1 billion on removing VAT exemptions on books 2.6 billion in green taxes, including CO2 tax for agriculture (the figure includes the road use taxes which is mentioned above) 1.5 billion less to counties with extraordinary concession power income Re-introduce waiting period on employment verification money, 0.7 billion Drop proposed increase in tax deductions for trade union membership, 0.6 billion 0.3 billion to drop the government’s dental health reform 0.2 billion to postponing maintenance on roads and railways 0.2 billion for not prioritizing free ferries as the government does 0.2 billion for not prioritizing the dissolution of counties and municipalities In addition, Høgre collects 1.3 billion more from the state’s investment company Argentum
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Bureaucracy, aid and petrol – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
