2023-04-22 15:18:00
Finance Minister Sven Gatz (Open VLD), would like to implement the Smartmove kilometer tax project in Brussels as of the next legislature if his party joins a regional majority, he suggests in the columns of the Last Hour and The Future, Saturday. For the president of the Brussels PS Ahmed Laaouej, it is “no”.
The option of a smart kilometer tax in Brussels had been sharply rejected by Wallonia and Flanders. However, it would bring in between 200 and 250 million euros per year in Brussels. Not insignificant amounts as the regional debt grows – it has increased by 122% since 2018, according to the latest report from the National Accounts Institute (ICN).
In the DH and L’Avenir, Sven Gatz underlines that the Brussels Region will have to find 500 million euros just for 2024. The next government will also have to tighten its belt.
According to the Minister, “there may be a window of opportunity during the first six months of the (next) legislature” to implement Smartmove. He says he is ready to negotiate with the PS to imagine mechanisms of “social compensation” for the least favored Brussels residents.
“We are very clear: it’s no”, reacts via Belga the president of the Brussels PS Ahmed Laaouej. “We salute the work of Sven Gatz, who spares no effort. However, we cannot accept that new taxes will increase the bills of households faced with increasingly greater difficulties, in particular with the increase in the price of food products and energy bills.
“Sven Gatz is right to point out the budgetary situation in Brussels which is difficult, like that of other levels of power,” said Ahmed Laaouej. “But it is by continuing to revive the economy and employment that we can regain better financial health, with new resources for public finances”.
At the federal level, the Brussels PS supports all measures that will strengthen tax justice, such as a more effective fight once morest tax evasion, the use of income from speculation and large multinationals that have enriched themselves during the crisis. Some of these measures might have a positive effect for the Regions, he said.
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