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Italian Finance Minister Giovanni Tria said that while he’s written in the past about the advantages of taxation on consumption, he’ll leave any decision on value-added tax to the “politicians” in the government, Il Messaggero reported Friday, citing an interview.
Disagreement within the Cabinet, with Tria warning that budget measures can’t be financed without raising VAT, have led to the adoption of a less ambitious version of earlier proposals for a full flat tax, newspapers including La Stampa reported Wednesday.
Responding to a question from Il Messaggero about the country’s stagnant growth, Tria pointed to measures recently enacted by the government, saying their effects will likely not be noticeable until the second half of the year.
Tria, like Deputy Premiers Matteo Salvini and Luigi Di Maio, ruled out so-called “corrective measures” for the 2019 budget.
“There will not be any corrective measures in the traditional sense of the term,” the finance minister said. There could be “quantitative measures, but without modifying the structure of the budget.” Tria also said an improvement in the structural deficit may be possible, even if it’s only a tenth of a percentage point.
Italy needs lower income taxes, Tria said, saying that the country’s growth will be fueled by reforms to the tender process designed to unblock building projects. He pointed to 87 billion euros ($98 billion) currently blocked in public accounts due to bureaucratic hurdles.