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Far-reaching measures will hit everyone, says finance ministerTuesday 18 September 2012 Everyone will be aware of the far-reaching measures the caretaker government is taking to bring the government finances under control, finance minister Jan Kees de Jager told parliament on Tuesday. De Jager presented the budget on a tablet, as well as the traditional briefcase this year. Photo: WFA 'The financial crisis will not go away,' De Jager said. 'People are right to be worried about their jobs, the housing market. Growth expectations over the next few years are modest… we are all going to feel it.' Spending power According to the government's macro-economic forecasting agency CPB, the effect of the spring austerity measures will be to reduce spending power by an average 0.75% next year, on top of a 1.75% drop this year. The economy will shrink by 0.5% this year and grow by 0.75% next year, as the cuts begin to take affect., the CPB said. Unlike in previous years, the measures the cabinet is planning to take are already in the public domain and some, such as the increase in value-added tax to 21%, have already been passed by both houses of parliament. Nevertheless, a number of measures, such as a tax on travel expenses, remain controversial and may not become law. Balance Speaking after the presentation, De Jager said if the new government wants to drop some of the measures, it will have to find alternatives to make sure the books still balance. Prime minister Mark Rutte reiterated that point: 'If you want to get rid of it, you need an alternative,' he said, adding this rule will apply to both parliament and the new coalition. 'The strength of this budget is it sets the tone, it forms the basis,' he said.
© DutchNews.nl
Let's not call it 'value added tax' please, how about 'sales tax', an excellent idea to raise it to 21%...bravo! 'Not only will we have less spending power, but many of us will just buy more online (More shops will close, more unemployed.).. Seeing as so many shops cannot be bothered to order anything outside their own inventory anyways! I am not in the habit of going short because of other people's mistakes, are you?? I will just add a few more LED spot lights, eat pasta twice a week & avoid spending anything I don't need at all costs :) The only people to be hit hard will be the idiots, the ones that watch reality TV, nice! By The visitor | September 18, 2012 9:26 PM Cuts? Money problems? What a joke! In my neighbourhood (Amstelveen) the money wasting they do is mind blowing. At the moment they are renewing all the grass!!! Perfectly kept grass has been dug up, and replaced! It's an alarming waste of money. By Anne Onymous | September 18, 2012 11:44 PM De Jager sure hasn't missed any meals, so I guess the cuts do not apply to him, just the average NL citizen. By The Cat Lady | September 19, 2012 3:35 AM "Will effect everyone". Except the Queen who gets an extra 11,000 euros whilst everyone else has to make savings. Presumably the bankers will also be allowed to continue their plundering of the economy as well. By Andy | September 19, 2012 7:50 AM Make sacrifice? Andy got the point. How can a "royal" tell other people to make sacrifice when she even rejected planned cut to the appanage of her family as for other royals in Europe? We should never forget that Oranjes made their enormous fortune on the back of war, slavery, poverty and suffering for a long time on the back of the population. Now it is time to abolish the inheritance of state positions by royals of a democratic state in Europe. By Mike Zulu | September 19, 2012 11:14 AM I think for any government to keep face when talking about any cuts, is to start with their own salaries, followed by the parlamentarists pockets. Why is it world-wide that it's always the smallest people that have to suffer in the first place? By kar | September 19, 2012 12:25 PM as of 2015 the royals will have to pay for their PRIVATE travel. WTF!!! they are telling us that we need to tighten our belts, but they still get FREE VACATION and now the de jager wants to tax what I pay to get to work???? I happily pay 52% on my earnings why shouldn't the royals do the same? By unBorn | September 19, 2012 12:40 PM @the visitor: the BTW is a value added tax indeed. It is charged each time eligible services and good exchange hands, but non-final users can compensate the amount they paid on the products/services they bought. So the description is quite accurate. A sales taxes would be a tax payable only on final sales, such as in most US states, which is a completely different animal than VAT/BTW. By Andre L. | September 19, 2012 2:03 PM @The Cat Lady: I think it is never constructive to denigrate people's appearance to make your point. That is the same behaviours many of us criticize when PVV people do it (see e.g. De Mos (PVV) insulting Van Gen (GroenLinks) exactly on her weight: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjvIlVUOI7w) By the_expat | September 19, 2012 4:36 PM
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Of course, they did their utmost best to prevent as many cuts as possible that would affect them.
By Someone | September 18, 2012 4:48 PM