The Growth Opportunity Act is intended to provide relief – but it tends to cause tension. The Union only wants to agree with the law if the traffic light deletes points from it. The mediations planned for tomorrow may apparently fail.
The Mediation Committee of the Bundesrat and Bundestag is due to meet tomorrow on the Growth Opportunities Act. According to information from the Portal news agency, an agreement could still take some time. “We hope for a postponement,” said one of those involved. This assessment is shared by both the traffic light parties and the Union camp, another person said.
The Growth Opportunities Law aims, among other things, to provide tax benefits to companies. However, the Federal Council blocked the project claiming that the states would have to bear a large part of the costs. This is why the law is currently in the process of mediation. The Union only wants to agree to the law if the SPD, the Greens and the FDP renounce the planned abolition of the tax reduction for agricultural diesel. The government rejects this.
Scholz and Habeck for a quick deal
According to Portal, a postponement would not be a problem because the Federal Council will not meet again until March 22. If an agreement between the federal and state governments fails tomorrow, a new working group could be created to negotiate a compromise on the agricultural issue.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz called for a quick agreement. It would be good if the Growth Opportunities Act was passed quickly, despite all the political conflicts, the SPD politician said at an employers' association event in Berlin. It would bring relief to small and large businesses. Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck also pushed for a deal. “This has to happen now,” said the Green politician.
Merz: Tax losses should not burden farmers
An informal federal-state group with representatives from the traffic light and Union parties presented a compromise proposal to the mediation committee. This limited the tax benefit for companies from just over seven to an average of 3.2 billion euros per year. The reason was that, according to the government's proposal, states and municipalities in particular would have to bear a large part of the deficit in tax collection. “Now it's gotten even smaller, but these impulses were supposed to arrive. And, to be honest, they're already arriving too late,” Habeck said.
The leader of the union parliamentary group, Friedrich Merz, calculated that the federal government would still have tax losses of around 1.5 billion euros. “We are against these tax losses being financed through tax increases of around 500 million euros at the expense of farmers”, stated the president of the CDU. “We are not prepared to accept that some are burdened so that others can be relieved. The two belong together.”
“I cannot understand why the Union, which likes to claim economic competence, is blocking this central project”, said the leader of the FDP parliamentary group, Christian Dürr, to “Tagesspiegel”. CDU President Merz and CSU head Markus Söder blocked “reliefs for purely party-political reasons – at the expense of our companies.”
Michael Weidemann, ARD Berlin, tagesschau, February 20, 2024 6:23 pm