“I don’t think there is any need to declare a sense of catastrophic situation when it comes to the economic situation,” said Fiscal Council Chairman Christoph Badelt on Sunday in “ZiB 2.” However, the public sector’s financial situation is “really not good.” “A large proportion of the promises made by the political parties are dubious and unrealistic,” said Badelt.
Savings potential
When it comes to the question of counter-financing, the SPÖ is still the party that is most concrete – with the wealth tax, the inheritance tax and the renewed increase in the corporate tax. “But that does not exempt the SPÖ from the accusation of a lack of seriousness, because these figures are not realistic.” And according to the Reds, the money is to be used for additional spending. Badelt: “The SPÖ has nothing to say about how we can get away from a deficit of ten to 15 billion.”
Not even “Chinese economic growth,” according to the head of the Fiscal Council, would mean that Austria would not need counter-financing or an austerity program. “Even with economic growth, we have savings potential.”
- Video: Fiscal Councillor Christoph Badelt criticises the economic programmes presented by the parties in terms of counter-financing:
As much as a reduction in non-wage labor costs would be desirable, says Badelt, it would not have a positive effect on the budget. Benefit cuts would have to be made on a “dramatic scale,” but he does not see where that could be the case. The economic expert cites minimum income as an example: “Both the FPÖ and the ÖVP give the impression that significant amounts could be saved on minimum income for foreigners. But the entire minimum income costs only one billion, and the contribution that those entitled to asylum receive is only a small part of that,” says Badelt. “The arguments here are simply not serious,” which would increase disillusionment with politics.
Badelt’s proposal: suspend climate bonus
Budget consolidation must be the top priority. “There is no other option than to look at both the expenditure and the revenue side.” Unpopular measures will have to be taken, says Badelt. His idea, “which has not been agreed with anyone and is certainly very unpopular”: CO2 pricing is currently being used to pay into the climate bonus. However, people are not accepting this as compensation for the higher petrol prices. “You could therefore suspend the payment of this climate bonus for a few years. The population would not notice that very much.”
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His appeal to the parties: “The parties should be honest, they should say that we have to slow down the spending dynamic and that it is not realistic to implement major tax cuts in the near future.”
