(Finance) – Senate gives green light to Superbonus decree, approved with 101 yes, 64 no, no abstentions. The measure, for which the government requested and obtained a vote of confidence, now passes to the Chamber with an armored process: the final approval is expected by May 28th. An approval that took place amidst controversy with tension remaining high among the majority.
“If the League had done only half of what Forza Italia did, they would have all attacked Salvini and called him irresponsible” is the joke, picked up by reporters in the bars, of leader of the League in the Senate Massimiliano Romeo. The reference is to what happened in recent days in the Budget Committee with the abstention of Fi, after the vote of confidence in the chamber on the superbonus bill, with the yes of the majority present.
“It is good that the Government has accepted the agenda of my colleague Fausto Orsomarso, group leader in the Finance Commission, which provides for greater controls on credits deriving from building bonuses. It is now clear, in fact, that the Superbonus, in addition to having been effective practically non-existent, since only 4% of Italian real estate has been made more efficient, it has created an enormous chasm in public finances also due to the lack of controls. This is how fraud, illegality and speculation have occurred, as is the case with credits purchased from financial intermediaries with discounts of up to 75%. The agenda approved by the commission commits the Government to providing for checks on the declarations presented to the Revenue Agency and the correct fulfillment of tax obligations enormous economic damage caused by Grillina demagoguery” commented the senator of the Brothers of Italy Filippo Melchiorre, vice-president of the Finance commission.
“The Forza Italia group not only abstained on the government amendment but also voted with the opposition. Despite Forza Italia’s attitude, the amendment was approved and the work ended in an orderly manner – said the president of the Finance Commission Massimo Garavaglia in the explanation of vote –. Could we have done another round of waltzes on the Titanic to get a few more votes? In our opinion, no. Minister Giorgetti did well. Such narrow margins in commissions that decide for billions are not good, because a single vote increases the power of blackmail and increases the power of the lobbies.”
“We continue to have many doubts about the Superbonus and we are against any hypothesis of a retroactive law” commented the FI leader and deputy prime minister Antonio Tajani.
Harsh criticism from the opposition. “The superbonus was born in 2020 in the midst of the pandemic and was supposed to end in 2021. Then the measure was carried forward by Draghi and extended for 19 months by this majority. The extension to single-family houses is the extraordinary intuition of Giorgetti and Meloni, the The act of 10 August 2023 bears their signature. This is the truth. The rest is propaganda from a government that finds the excuse of the super bonus to cover its inability to amend the budget law, a government that, unable to hide the numbers, presented a Def without writing them. A government without a shred of economic and industrial policy. You cannot govern a country like Italy without finding resources through the draft tax, and, since the math doesn’t add up, invent the alibi of the super bonus – said the president of the senators of the Democratic Party Francesco Boccia commenting on the vote on the Superbonus Decree – In recent days – concludes Boccia – we have witnessed the war between Lega and Fi, whose attitude has just been defined as blackmail by authoritative exponents of the Northern League. The trust placed in this provision is a trust placed on the majority itself: today FI swallows the errors of Minister Giorgetti which affects businesses and companies that have trusted the State but rewards with amnesties and settlements those who the State instead deceives it”.
And the president of the Abi Antonio Patuelli hopes for corrections. “The banks were the first buyers of these credits and therefore we were surprised by an unexpected and unpredictable rule which also has a retroactive effect because it says that those already purchased from January 1st cannot deduct them from social security and insurance costs” he said Patuelli. The impact on banks? “The calculation is not feasible because it is not a flat rule but full of combined arrangements that we, like Abi and the banks, have tried to analyse, we have made some assessments but the arranged arrangements are quicksand – observed Patuelli –. Confidence in the Superbonus decree – said the president of the ABI – it was voted, the provision is not a problem for the institutions. The problem we have is that we are subject to international, European and national rules and we are supervised by European and national authorities commercial operators who can do whatever they want. When the Superbonus was approved, about 4 years ago, from the beginning there was pressure, sometimes even heavy, on the banking world to buy more and more of these credits January 1st will not be able to offset the tax credits they have purchased against a certain item, that of social security expenses for employees, while profits depend on various factors and the peak of rates has already been passed, they have been falling since November and it is It is now obvious that the ECB will begin to reduce them in June. I am in love with constitutional law. I hope that the problems relating to retroactivity will be corrected because this is not a constitutional provision, there is no need for the 138 procedure to modify it. It is not an eternal norm, my hope is that the institutions can improve it.”