The salmon tax has been passed, but is causing waves in the bourgeois camp. – I think the Conservative Party has been both wobbly and unclear, says Venstre leader Guri Melby to news. She has brought her two deputy leaders Sveinung Rotevatn and Abid Raja out into the sun for what is a rare clear showdown with her old government partner the Conservative Party. – It is still unclear whether they are in favor of a basic interest tax on aquaculture or not, what it should be if so, what kind of model they will use as a basis and how much they think is right for us to take in, says Melby. The three Liberal leaders are reacting to the way Erna Solberg and the Conservative Party have acted in the matter. That the largest opposition party was left out of the cross-party agreement on a salmon tax of 25 per cent is surprising. CLARIFICATION: Abid Raja, Guri Melby and Sveinung Rotevatn ask the Conservative Party to state what the party really wants with the salmon tax. Photo: Kristian Skårdalsmo / news But even if the Conservative Party is on the outside, Solberg recently announced that the Conservative Party could accept a rate of 15 per cent and the government’s model – in order to create calm around a settlement. Conservative deputy leader Henrik Asheim nevertheless believes that it is a crazy characterization to say that the Conservative Party has vacillated and been indistinct. – We have been clear from the first second that the proposal the government came up with was both a bad model and had far too high a tax burden on an industry we want to grow, he says. Want answers The Conservative Party has announced a rematch on the salmon tax in the event of a bourgeois election victory in 2025. But a rematch will be bad news for the rest of the business world and for Norwegian taxpayers, according to the Liberal leaders. They fear that removing the salmon tax will be so expensive that there will be no money left for other and more important tax breaks. – For our part, we want to reduce wealth tax, dividend tax and not least the high employer’s tax which now affects many companies, says Rotevatn. – If on top of that you start giving even more tax breaks to the aquaculture industry, then this will be a calculation that is difficult to make work, he fears. TAX DISPUTE: Liberal leader Guri Melby. Photo: Kristian Skårdalsmo / news Melby states that the Liberal Party’s approval leaves room for tax cuts for people and business, but that the Conservative Party only seems to prioritize relief for the very largest farming companies. – I think the Conservative Party has abused the opportunity to have greater influence on tax and levy policy, she says. The four parties on the bourgeois side, Høyre, Frp, Venstre and KrF, governed the country together in the years 2013–2021. And two weeks ago, Conservative leader Erna Solberg gathered the four parties on the bourgeois side in a joint attack on the government’s health policy. But since then, the four parties on the bourgeois side have parted ways several times: The Liberals have entered into a settlement with the government parties on the salmon tax. KrF has supported the government’s offshore wind plan. The Conservative Party and the Progressive Party have gone against the government in both of these cases. – Surprising After the proposal first saw the light of day last autumn, the saga of the salmon tax came to a sort of full stop on 25 May this year. Then the governing parties Ap and Sp entered into a settlement with the Liberal Party and tiny Patient Focus, with one representative in the Storting, a settlement on the tax. When the matter was decided in the Storting hall on 31 May, Rødt also voted for the settlement. But neither the government’s budget partner SV, nor the Conservative Party nor the KrF from the bourgeois camp did that. On 16 May, the Conservative Party, KrF and the Liberal Party broke off the negotiations with the government about the tax, before the Liberal Party went ahead in the dialogue on its own. That in the end there was a compromise also with one party from the bourgeois camp on board also caused the Conservatives to raise their eyebrows. – It was very surprising to us that suddenly someone had made a compromise of 25 per cent, Conservative leader Erna Solberg told news before the weekend. It was Rotevatn that negotiated the salmon tax for the Liberal Party. He wants a clarification from the Conservative Party on whether the party wants to prioritize tax relief also for industries other than the aquaculture industry. – There is a big clean-up job ahead of us in 2025, with the taxes introduced by the government here. That will be demanding enough in itself, he says. BREAK: Høyre’s Helge Orten, Liberal Party’s Alfred Bjørlo and KrF’s Kjell Ingolf Ropstad broke the negotiations on the salmon tax. But later the Liberals entered into a settlement with the governing parties. Photo: Ole Berg-Rusten / NTB Will have a rematch Thus, there is dissatisfaction in several camps in the wake of the Storting’s decision. – It is in the cards that we will try to find a better solution if we get the opportunity, said the Høyre’s fiscal policy spokesperson Helge Orten when the salmon tax was discussed in the Storting last week. The warning about a possible political rematch came as an answer to a question from SV’s Torgeir Knag Fylkesnes: – Will it be a point for the Conservative Party to lower taxes further and contribute to more unpredictability? asked the SV representative. – Yes, it would be a point for us to lower the tax further. The tax level should go down. We will also look at the layout of the model, replied Orten. To Rødt’s Marie Sneve Martinussen, who challenged him about the same, Orten added that the Conservative Party would also “investigate other models so that the industry can contribute somewhat more”. Solberg will examine the so-called Faroese model, which is a variant of a production tax. In addition, she will investigate a possible higher corporation tax for the aquaculture industry. But what will happen if there is a civic election victory is still unclear. – After all, we have been in the government with Erna for two years all together, and we are used to Erna being very clear and clear on major issues. This is a big question, says Raja. – Actually, this is not criticism of the Right. This is more of an invitation to the Conservative Party to clarify and have a clear and distinct position that everyone can relate to. – Will have to pay more Conservative deputy leader Henrik Asheim describes the move from the Liberal Party as spin. TOP RIGHT: Erna Solberg and Henrik Asheim. Photo: Trond Stenersen – I understand that they now need to defend that they have been involved in this together with Patient Focus. Both at our national meeting and in the negotiations, we have been clear about where the boundaries of the Conservative Party are. There were limits that the government was not willing to meet, he says. – So there will be a rematch over the salmon tax if there is a change of government? – Yes, what we have said is that it is reasonable for the salmon industry to pay somewhat more tax, the industry itself also says so. But the arrangement and the level of the tax burden that has now been adopted, we believe, is too high. And it’s a bad model. He dismisses the Liberal Party’s message that the Conservative Party will not have money left to make other tax cuts. – We must take in more income from the farming industry. But the model that has now been created is rigged so that it is not profitable to grow, for example, along our coast. We need many more profitable jobs in the rural areas.
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