I authorize the use of cookies I authorize
CAMPOBASSO – Decontribution to the South risks being abandoned. The President of Confindustria Molise Vincenzo Longobardi spoke on the topic.
Among the measures introduced by the various Italian governments from 2020 onwards, the decontribution in the South was certainly the one with the greatest impact on employment and with the least distorting effects on both use and tax evasion.
Requested several times by the Confindustria system precisely because it is a safe, reliable and immediately implementable tool, in recent years it has helped companies in Southern Italy to overcome, at least partially, the enormous infrastructural gaps they suffer, managing to make a constantly lagging area more attractive. of development compared to the Centre-North.
Born as a temporary crisis and transition measure by the EU Commission and extended until 30 June 2024, it risks being banned after that date.
“As regional representatives of Confindustria, – states the President of Confindustria Molise Vincenzo Longobardi – in recent weeks we have consulted the Minister for European Affairs Raffaele Fitto, who assured us that he will bring the issue to the European Commission with the intention of obtaining the extension of the benefit beyond the set expiry date”.
But what does the 30% decontribution in the South represent in practice? It is a cut through state aid in the contributory share of labor costs, essentially a partial reduction in direct tax burdens which goes in the direction of reducing the high cost of labor in Italy (higher than the European average) and which brings it closer, for example, to the Spanish cost (which still remains lower). We are still far from Portugal, Greece, Poland and above all the other Eastern European countries.
It is worth remembering – adds Longobardi – how “spending on contributions represents a fixed cost element and therefore cannot be managed by the company in the face of a contraction in volumes, which is why its containment once again represents a bulwark for employment beyond than to business continuity.
We have always maintained that the competitiveness of the South can be played above all on the competitiveness of production factors: capital, labour, energy, environmental and transition costs, level of taxation, bureaucratic simplification.
Removing such a direct element of competitiveness would mean inviting part of the industry to abandon the territory, pushing it to search for much more fertile overseas land, with all due respect to cohesion policies”.
To give a simple example, just think that just to reach the markets of northern Italy the increase in annual spending for a medium-sized company in Molise is around 150KEur towards the year 2019, while for energy consumption we are between +10% for driving force up to +85% for methane which equates to approximately €300K more in cost. These costs cannot always be transferred to the turnover, in fact so far they have mostly been absorbed by the margins. Against this we find the beneficial effect of the decontribution of around €200K.
“Not only do we need a 30% decontribution – concludes the President of Confindustria Molise Longobardi – but we would need a 50% decontribution and energy costs comparable with our international competitors! This is the only way that would allow us to reduce the gaps mentioned above and free up the resources necessary for the green and digital transition as well as, and I would say above all, increase employment by attracting resources to this region and to the South in general.
Decontribution is our bridge over the strait of the fiscal wedge and we would expect a Europe that builds it and not demolishes it! It is our last line of the Piave, now in the hands of Minister Fitto and those of the government. We both hope that we have the strength and political stature to win this epochal challenge, also because we are beginning to feel the strain of these hard years.”
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
: “A good example of an industrial incentive that risks being abandoned”){kind=link}