Norway's Conservatives pledge 1,000 kroner monthly tax break in bold election gambit
The party's generous tax package will also cut tax to zero for all monthly earnings below 150,000 kronor, and when fully phased in will cost a total of 36.5 billion kroner.
"Getting the monthly budget to go around, being able to afford a good dinner or an experience with the children and not worrying too much about your own personal finances, should be a given in Norway," the party's leader, Erna Solberg, said at a press conference announcing the move.
The party is promising to bring in the job tax rebate over the next four-year mandate period if it wins the next election. Income from disability or unemployment benefits will not be eligible for the rebate.
"Not being able to work should not be a punishment, but it must always be worthwhile to work," the party's deputy leader, Tina Bru, explained at the press conference.
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The gambit, announced as Solberg is coming under increasing pressure internally for her party's lacklustre performance in the polls, was heavily criticised by parties in the left-wing bloc.
The party support has halved over the past two years, falling from 32.5 percent in March 2023 to 16.2 percent this June according
to the poll of polls
calculated by Solberg's former state secretary Lars Øy and the law professor Johan Giertsen.
"This is the most outrageous piece of election pork I have ever seen," the Green Party's leader, Arild Hermstad, told NRK. "Erna Solberg appears out of touch with reality and is obviously desperate."
The Labour Party's deputy leader, Tonje Brenna, complained that the party had not explained how the tax breaks would be funded.
"Erna Solberg refuses to show where she is going to get the money from. The maths doesn't add up. Where are the cuts coming from?" she asked. "The last time Solberg ruled, the bill was paid by ordinary people through increased outlays for families with children and petty and antisocial cuts to, among other things, glasses for children who need them. There is every reason to expect the same to happen now."
READ ALSO:
How Norwegian parties' election pledges could affect foreigners
At the press conference announcing the rebate, Solberg said that the current Labour government had significantly increased the use of oil money, making the tax cuts "fully possible to achieve", by prioritizing differently.
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She also promised to save billions of kroner in outlays by making the public sector more efficient.
The tax rebate comes on top of the Conservative Party's existing promises to remove the wealth tax on working capital, to reform the exit tax "to lure talent, investors and value creators back to Norway", and to cut taxes for business owners by 22.2 billion kronor.
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