Lower House gives green light to 2025 Budget

(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 21 - The Lower House late on Friday gave its green light to the 2025 budget bill with 211 votes in favour and 117 against.
    The package of measures now goes to the Senate for final approval, which is expected on December 28.
    The 2025 budget bill has 30 billion euros worth of new measures.
    The package includes a 1,000-euro bonus for the parents of newborns, although it will be means tested, with wealthier families excluded, as part of efforts to reverse Italy's declining birth rate.
    Banks, which have enjoyed high profits in recent years thanks to the ECB putting up interest rates, and insurance companies will be called on to make a 3.5-billion-euro contribution to the budget, which will to go the national health system.
    The budget also maintains cuts in the labour-tax wedge for lower earners that the government made in its 2023 budget law.
    The Quota 103 scheme is kept, enabling people to start claiming a State pension before the retirement age of 67, under certain conditions.
    Around 2.3-2.4 billion euros of the financial coverage for the budget comes from a review of public spending, with ministries told to cut their budgets.
    Healthcare resources will be boosted by 1.3 billion ahead of contract renewals in 2028-2030 with higher allowances for doctors and nurses and healthcare personnel working in ERs.
    (ANSA).