Come clean on cutback figures, warns the opposition

JUST days before the scheduled vote in parliament of fresh austerity measures, opposition lawmakers suggested yesterday they were still tax-heavy and threatened not to approve them.

Following an agreement with the opposition last Friday, the government pledged that spending cutbacks would outpace an increase in revenue at a ratio of 2 to 1.

The government said a couple of days ago that the ratio was in fact 3:1.

But both main opposition DISY and DIKO disputed the figures yesterday, saying the measures fell short of the target.

“Even with their figures, an additional €100 million is needed to achieve the ratio,” said DIKO vice chairman Nicolas Papadopoulos. “With our calculations … €260 million is needed.”

Papadopoulos said that his party wanted to hear from the ministry how it planned to cover the gap by the time the budget was put to the vote.

He suggested that the two-year freeze in the public payroll together with a contribution by civil servants – passed in August – yielded savings of just €70 million.

And he did not consider the freeze a cut in spending so it could not be taken into consideration when calculating the 2:1 ratio.

“If the position is that there is no chance to even save a cent from an €8.0 billion budget, then one cannot ask us to approve the proposed measures,” Papadopoulos said. “To us, the measures are not based on the 2:1 ratio.”

The DIKO official did not rule out his party rejecting the taxes.

“We were prepared to approve the taxes provided that the ratio was observed,” Papadopoulos said.

From the moment it was not “one cannot expect us to approve the rise in VAT for example”.

He was echoed by his DISY counterpart Averof Neophytou who also disputed the government’s figures.

“I don’t know what those in government are trying to tell us but to be honest, today I am convinced about the reasons this government was unable not make a correct forecast in the past three years,” Neophytou said.

The DISY number two also said that just days before the vote, the government has still not come up with measures to stimulate growth, as per last Friday’s agreement.

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