Italy's cabinet passes 2023 budget worth 35b euros
Italy's cabinet passed the new budget law early on Tuesday, planning measures worth some 35 billion euros (35.8 billion U.S. dollars) for 2023. The new budget included a package aimed at alleviating skyrocketing energy costs for companies and households, as well as tax cuts for employees and self-employed workers.
Overall, it included measures worth some 21 billion euros (21.5 billion dollars) to help companies and families face electricity and gas bills next year, the cabinet said in a statement.
The budget also introduced a cut in the socalled "tax-wedge," namely the difference between the money an employer pays as a salary and the actual amount a worker gets.
Another fiscal measure would extend a 15 percent income tax scheme for the selfemployed to annual income of up to 85,000 euros (87,202 dollars), compared with the current ceiling of 65,000 euros (66,684 dollars), the cabinet said.
The law was approved in the early hours of Tuesday and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was expected to unveil other key measures in detail at a press conference scheduled for 10 a.m. (0900 GMT) on Tuesday.
The budget will have to pass both chambers of parliament before being sent by year-end to European Union (EU) authorities, which are in charge of assessing EU countries' national budgets to check if they comply with EU fiscal rules. Shouting matches with public officials and undercover sting operations on corrupt bureaucrats helped Nepali television host Rabi Lamichhane tap into widespread discontent over an elderly, back-scratching political leadership.
The bombastic journalist is one of several young upstart candidates who will contest the Himalayan republic's election on Sunday against the familiar faces that have strode the corridors of power for decades. An elite club of parliamentary veterans taking turns as leader-at a time when the economy is teetering-has fuelled perceptions that the government is out of touch with Nepal's problems.
"People say, 'we have been cheated, there is discrimination, we have to pay bribes, we don't have access to drinking water, we don't have jobs'," Lamichhane told AFP during a campaign pit stop. A cheering crowd lined the roadside to greet the star candidate and garland him with flowers as his entourage moved through the streets of Padampur, a small town around six hours' drive from the capital, Kathmandu.
"I helped people solve some of these problems even when I was not in a position of power," he said. "So we can deliver on our promises." Lamichhane, with telegenic charisma and a winning smile, is no stranger to drawing an audience as one of Nepal's most famous and voluble television personalities.
He once held the Guinness World Record for hosting the longest talk show, a 62-hour marathon of celebrity interviews and talkback calls themed around the origins of the Buddha.
Later, he launched the muckraking news programme "Straight Talk with the People", anchored around combative interviews with political leaders and tabloid-style hidden camera stings that shamed authorities who demanded bribes for routine government services.
His work resonated with Nepalis dismayed at widespread graft that has routinely broken into open scandal, such as when members of the government's integrity agency were forced to step down after they were themselves accused of corruption.