NEWS
Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Alenka Bratušek, at the National Assembly: "No further intervention with pensions is foreseen."
Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Alenka Bratušek, attended today the 15th regular session of the National Assembly to answer parliamentary questions. The first question to the Prime Minister was asked by Jože Tanko, Deputy of the Slovenian Democratic Party, and concerned the exercise of responsibility for plagiarism in higher education in Slovenia. The Prime Minister stressed in her reply especially the importance of the autonomy of the University and the inadmissibility of interventions with its procedures. As regards the tolerance to plagiarism, the Prime Minister said that there are no reasons that it should be any different than in the developed world and added that plagiarism is unacceptable. In the Prime Minister's opinion, the assessment of criteria should be left to the competent experts.
The second parliamentary question was posed by Franc Bogovič from the Slovenian People's Party, who asked the Prime Minister about her evaluation of the consequences of the adopted real estate tax for the citizens of Slovenia. "The proposed real estate tax follows the plans entered in the 2013 Stability Programme," said the Prime Minister and explained that it is right, after a thorough Government's assessment, to "intervene, on the receipts side, with the increased fiscal weight of those tax measures whose effect on the economic growth is least adverse in accordance with the fiscal theory and practical experience". The Prime Minister continued that the Government decided for the important increase of the fiscal weight of the real estate tax also because these taxes contribute a relatively low GDP share in Slovenia, about 0.6%, while this share can be as much as three times higher in developed economies. She added that a part of the tax would be kept in the national budget, thus ensuring further reduction of the budget deficit: "Thus the real estate tax will not be intended only to replace the income of municipalities, but also to contribute to fiscal consolidation."
Ljudmila Novak, Deputy of New Slovenia, asked the Prime Minister how the Government plans to boost economic growth and create new jobs by introducing additional excessive tax burdens. The Prime Minister stressed in her reply that the Government continues to advocate solidarity and welfare state despite the adopted and proposed measures, and believes that the right combination of the revenue and expenditure side is the only right way. "My estimate is that the right set of measures on the revenue and expenditure side can impact the economic growth much more positively than the mere austerity advocated by the previous Government," added the Prime Minister and explained that the continuation of the existing long-term specific measures or credit lines of SID bank will ensure additional 400 million euro of long-term resources in 2013. According to the Prime Minister, up to thousand enterprises will be supported annually and 50.000 jobs will be preserved or created on the basis of these and new resources.
The last parliamentary question was posed to the Prime Minister by Franc Jurša, Deputy of the Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia whether the Government planned any austerity measures in the field of pensions in 2013. "The revised budget of 2013 does not foresee any further austerity measures in the field of pensions," stressed the Prime Minister in her reply and added that the reduction of pensions, as opposed to the reduction of wages in the public sector, did not take place. According to the Prime Minister, the savings resulting from the mentioned measures amounted to about 194 million euro in the period from 2010 up to and including 2012. In the mentioned amount, the savings resulting from the adjustment or non-adjustment of pensions amounted to 140 million euro, while the rest is the result of the reduced payment of the annual grant of pensioners.