The government seems to expect sports entrepreneurs to play a stronger role in moving the people, but to tax them more heavily. We also want to increase the role of schools as promoters of physical activity.
Last week, the government stated that its goal is to turn physical activity into growth in all age groups. It intends to do that by creating the Suomi liikkeille program.
At the same time, the government outlined that the value added tax on sports services will increase by four percentage points to 14 percent.
The leading researcher of Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences Kati Lehtonen think there is a contradiction in the government’s goals and measures.
– On the one hand, we promote, encourage, develop, and on the other hand, we plan it away. Does the benefit of all this remain at the plus minus zero level?
Lehtonen points out that at the same time, the government will lighten taxation on beer, for example.
– Should we tighten things that are not good for health and ability to function?
The measures of the Suomi liikkeille program can be viewed in more detail via the pull-down menu.
The actions are not in line in all respects
Lehtonen brings up the last point of the Suomi liikkeille program, which “identifies the opportunities for entrepreneurs in the sports sector to work as part of service production”.
– At the same time, the government seems to expect that entrepreneurs will participate more strongly in moving citizens or that citizens will consume more services, Lehtonen opens.
At the same time, the aim is to get more money into the state coffers by taxing entrepreneurs more heavily.
– Entrepreneurs are seen as a source of income, but it is not imagined that tightening prices or taxation would have negative effects on their behavior, even as movers. The actions are not linear in all respects, says Lehtonen.
Cuts of even hundreds of euros from social security
Professor Emeritus at the University of Jyväskylä Hannu Itkonen is worried about how social security cuts will affect mobility.
– Large cuts do not contribute to that at all. We are talking about hundreds of euros. These different movement programs cannot get people to move more.
According to Itkonen, the decrease in operating money affects the use of cultural and sports services in particular.
– It has been seen for a long time. In itself, four percentage points seems small, but from the organizers’ point of view, it is a very challenging situation, especially after the corona virus.
For example, if a gym owner raises the prices according to the increase, the price of a 35-euro membership per month will increase by 91 cents. In a year, this means 10.92 euros.
Memberships have different prices, however: at a price of 70 euros, the annual price would increase by 21.84 euros.
Performance and everyday life on display
According to Kati Lehtonen, the government program conveys that understanding of the importance of movement has grown in recent years. Now the program also talks about the ability to function and surviving in everyday life, which can be considered the beginning of something new.
In the 2010s, sports policy has talked about actions aimed at elite sports on the one hand, but also about the extreme: how to get more people moving.
According to Lehtonen, the current government program has very few targets for more traditional players in sports policy, such as sports clubs and organizations. Instead, schools, early childhood education units and public educational institutions have been mentioned as supporters of the activity.
– A new and quite exciting solution is to add the promotion of a physical lifestyle to the Basic Education Act. However, I’m not sure if it’s the schools’ job.
– In this program, it is more strongly recorded that we try to get movement somewhere other than in hobby activities. It is equally mentioned that, for example, workplaces should have a more physical activity culture.
According to Lehtonen, the government program will leave a “state or administrative flavor” in terms of movement. For example, the government establishes a ministerial working group to implement and monitor the Finland on the Move program.
– I don’t know if this has a bit of a taste of giving up. We don’t believe that people themselves will be motivated to move, but we think about how to get more exercise during school days or motivate employees to walk to work.