“Putting more and more money into a state with an endless appetite is not building a good welfare state.” This is the introduction to Arne Hjeltnes’ post on news Ytring. I share Hjeltnes’ wish for a strong welfare state and viable local communities. The problem with Hjeltnes is that he bases his arguments on logic and politics which he must have learned during his time in Høgre’s leadership. In Norway, it is the case that we built a strong country by securing the community’s share of the value creation that takes place based on our shared natural resources. When we built out the hydropower, it was based on both foreign capital and knowledge. Through laws and taxes, the Storting secured both national control over the power resources and income was secured for both the community and local communities. The panic laws called it Høgre that time. When Norway became an oil nation, we used both ownership, regulation and taxation to ensure national control and ownership. Of course the foreign companies strongly disliked this. They would prefer to send the oil fortune home to Texas. They were not allowed to do that. There is no doubt that the political measures taken at the time have greatly contributed to so many people being able to live good lives in Norway today. Salmon farming is a fantastic industry. There is still no contradiction between contributing to the community and local communities and developing the industry further. This is our experience from both hydropower and oil. Now I am taking this policy further to aquaculture and wind power. The decisive thing when we have to do this is that we design the tax in a way that is adapted to the industry and the structure the industry has in Norway. The farming industry consists of five large companies, with around 50 per cent foreign ownership, which have licenses for 60 per cent of production. The rest is for small and medium-sized farming companies along the coast. Our proposal for ground rent tax is adapted to how the industry looks in Norway. No company must pay ground rent tax before the surplus is over NOK 70 million. It will be an advantage for small and medium-sized companies. The non-listed companies have told us: – The increase in wealth tax that Jan Tore Sanner and Høgre proposed in the National Budget 2022 and which the Storting agreed to is particularly demanding for us. I have listened to it. First by making a technical decision on what auction prices should be used as a basis for the valuation of farming concessions in wealth tax. This measure reduced the wealth tax on the salmon concessions by 30 per cent. Now we have also announced that we will reduce the valuation by 50 per cent. This is because we want the local companies to have their backs in developing local communities along the entire coast. I am confident that what we are now doing with introducing ground rent tax and changing the wealth tax in the salmon industry will both secure the industry and the local communities along the coast. The salmon industry will now step up into the elite series of industries that will build Norway further. FOLLOW THE DEBATE:
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The local community pays for ground rent tax – Statement
