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Cyprus News Agency: News in English, 09-12-29
CONTENTS
[01] FINANCE MINISTER - DEFICIT
[01] FINANCE MINISTER - DEFICIT
Minister of Finance Charilaos Stavrakis presented the proposals of his
Ministry, which aim at securing 500 million EUR for the state, a sum
that will constrain the public deficit at around 3%, compared to
European Commission projections for 5.8% in 2010 and 6% in 2011.
Stavrakis, who presented the proposals to the political parties and the
social partners, said his main aim was to avert a possible degradation
of Cyprus` economy and the vicious circle that will be created in the
case of an incontrollable increase of the public debt.
He said the package of measures would have to be implemented as a whole
and noted that income from combating tax evasion was estimated at 100
million EUR, while it was calculated that town planning amnesty would
bring in about 150 million EUR over the next two years.
The proposals include reevaluating the tax system for immovable assets,
which would bring in up to 100 million EUR. Stavrakis explained that
this tax would not affect entrepreneurship or foreign investors, and
would lead to a drop in the price of land.
Stavrakis also said that in 1990, there were 33,000 civil servants and
in 2009, they had risen to 51,000, with the payroll costing a total of
2.24 billion EUR in 2009. He noted that the aim was to reduce the
number of state employees by stalling the creation of new positions for
two years, halting the employment of part-time workers, and removing
full-time positions that are vacated.
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