Prime Minister De Croo continues to believe in an employment rate of 80 percent: “We have already risen sharply, in times of crisis” | Budget

The government has decided, among other things, that the energy discount of 196 euros per month will be extended and that the ministers will surrender 8 percent of their wages. In addition, decisions have been made about an excess profit tax for energy products, a curtailment of the time credit for taking care of children, the expansion of student work, and the abolition of the housing bonus for a second home. Here you will find an overview.

The tax reform proposed by Finance Minister Vincent Van Peteghem (CD&V) and which would leave working people with a net 500 euros more per year, is coming, Prime Minister Alexander De Croo confirmed to VTM NIEUWS. “I am in favor of that, we still have to take a step during this legislature to allow the people who work to have more left over,” says De Croo. But he admitted that a larger fiscal reform was not yet in sight. “A tax shift means that taxes go down for some people and up for others. If you decide that, then I want to be able to take a good look at that the impact on the people who go up is not excessive.”

De Croo also referred to the government’s most important priority today: the energy bill. “You can do all the tax shifts in the world today, if you get energy bills of hundreds of euros, you have to intervene on that energy bill first.” And the Vivaldi government wants to pay for this intervention with a tax on the surplus profits of the energy companies.

De Croo does not agree with the criticism of “guilty omission” because only 3.5 billion is saved on a budget deficit of 23 billion. “We are in a full crisis and then you have to help people and companies through it. And it is now the second crisis in a row, after Covid. What were we supposed to do then? Shall we say to those companies, to those bakers and butchers: ‘Just go ahead’? Are we going to tell people: ‘You can’t pay your bill, just stay out in the cold?’ You can’t do that right now.”

The prime minister notes that all countries in Europe are in debt in this time of crisis, and that the Belgian government has chosen to spread the budget over 2023 and 2024. “Next year will probably be another crisis year and then you have to make a crisis budget. But I also wanted a budget with fundamental reforms and that is the 2024 budget.”

The prime minister still believes that the employment rate in our country can go to 80 percent, as stipulated in the coalition agreement. “This government has been in operation for two years and the employment rate has risen sharply. This government has been jacking up the employment rate month by month, during a period of Covid crisis and now the energy crisis.”

For the companies, the Vivaldi government has also done its best, says the prime minister. “We have taken a measure to ensure that companies can spread the additional wage costs due to indexation and get a lot waived.”

“What is important: companies are confronted with large costs, we intervene. Citizens are confronted with this, we intervene. And in the meantime we are making a budget with a saving of 3.6 billion, next year and the year after,” said De Croo.

Regarding the curtailment of time credit to care for children, the prime minister said that “the intention is that the time credit is mainly used by those who need it, and that is young parents of children who have not yet reached compulsory school age”. That age is our country five years.

De Croo attributes more money from the government to people who heat with electricity than to those who use natural gas for that purpose to the technical difficulty of seeing who heats with electricity. People with a high electricity consumption do not necessarily heat with electricity, while a gas connection certainly serves for heating.