Senate set to pass budget bill

(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 28 - The Senate is set to pass the 2025 budget bill after a confidence vote in the Senate Saturday.
    The centre-left opposition has harshly criticised the package and the centre-right majority was also hit by dissent and controversy Friday as budget rapporteur Guido Quntino Liris, of Premier Girogia Meloni's rightwing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, quit complaining of a "de facto mono-chamberism" after he said that the package had been "armour-plated" against change in the Upper House.
    The government is staunchly defending a "prudent" budget, which Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti said has "rewarded" the country and that represents "a value".
    In the wake of Liris's resignation, Giorgetti said he is also open to a review of the parliamentary budget rules.
    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.
    Critics have said that the measure, a collection of suspensions of tax breaks, is only in fact a loan and that the financial institutions will be effectively reimbursed in a few years' time.
    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.
    photo: Giorgetti (ANSA).