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The Center Party crisis package is priced at NOK 32.4 billion. Our plan is more realistic and long-term than the government’s, says Sigbjørn Gjelsvik.
We will need business and employee support schemes that last longer than the government planned, and they need to be strengthened, says Sigbjørn Gjelsvik, SP’s fiscal policy spokesman. He is prepared to spend more than 24.5 billion kronor more than the government next year.
Ørn E. Borgen / NTB
- NTB-Gunnhild Hokholt Bjerve
Published:
The Center Party’s fiscal policy spokesperson presents the crisis package when the party presents its alternative state budget on Thursday.
The party expects oil spending of NOK 24.5 billion more than what the government and the Progress Party have planned so far to secure their crisis package.
But Gjelsvik believes the government is thinking too short a time frame.
– They push things in front of them, he tells NTB, and he thinks it creates additional uncertainty for both employees and companies.
– All signs indicate that one must live with the main consequences of the corona pandemic for a long time. So one must guarantee predictability at least until summer, he says.
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– Unrealistic or a bluff?
Gjelsvik lists costs that he believes the government parties and the Progress Party have not taken into account: a compensation scheme for aviation, which the government promised to consider to FRP, income security for employees, currently only expiring in March, and a compensation scheme for companies, which runs until February.
– Either it is an unrealistic budget or they are deceiving people, Gjelsvik believes.
The Center Party’s crown crisis package amounts to NOK 32.4 billion and includes three main pillars:
* NOK 16.7 billion will be used to expand and strengthen the crown’s support plans, such as the Business Compensation Plan, a new Aviation Compensation Plan, and income security for workers and the self-employed.
* NOK 6.1 billion in tax relief. This includes maintaining the low VAT rate of 6 per cent for tourism, transport and culture throughout 2021, not just the first half of the year as the government proposes. The party is in favor of tax cuts totaling NOK 9 billion in its alternative budget, but not all of this is included in the party’s crown package.
* NOK 9.6 billion are earmarked for specific measures to increase activity and restructuring. Included here is approximately NOK 1 billion for investments and maintenance in the Armed Forces, a package for maritime industries and NOK 3 billion for counties and municipalities, which will use the money for maintenance and construction projects.
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Construction and maintenance
– Classic countercyclical policy, says Gjelsvik.
With the money, counties and municipalities can speed up planned maintenance and construction projects, fix potholed county roads, and keep the construction industry going.
– Municipalities and regions can be an important engine to increase activity. But there must be a good municipal economy, says Gjelsvik, who promises that the Center Party will guarantee just that.
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Will insure seafarers
Gjelsvik believes that the Center Party’s crisis package is much better for the maritime sector. The party opposes the government’s proposed cut in the net pay scheme for seafarers, a subsidy scheme for the employment of workers at sea.
– It is extremely reckless, he claims, and instead promises to expand the scheme.
In addition, the party will introduce a wreck deposit plan for ships on the high seas and a stimulus plan for the conversion of such ships, in addition to reserving 500 million for the construction of demining vessels.
Get rid of the bill?
The Center Party thus increases the use of oil money in relation to the government, the Progress Party and the possible government partner that the Labor Party is planning. But it is necessary when Norway is in the worst crisis since World War II, according to Gjelsvik.
He denies having left the bill on future generations.
– One of the most serious things we can do on behalf of future generations is to sit passively and watch record unemployment occur in Norway, he says.
