“If the argument with the wage-price spiral were correct, we would now have to demand six or seven percent,” said the union boss in an interview with the daily newspaper “Der Standard”. Katzian also renewed his call for a reduction in VAT.
The tax should be “halved or even suspended for half a year,” Katzian recently demanded. In order to ensure that the suspended VAT also reaches consumers, a deal is needed between retailers and the government. Katzian explains in the “Standard” that the latter must agree with the big players that the tax cut must be passed on. Such an agreement would then have to be strictly controlled.
When deciding which products should be exempt from tax, it takes “courage to leave gaps” if help is to be provided quickly. Even if high earners would benefit more from this. “It would need a list of the products that people buy every week,” says Katzian. “And yes, there will be blurring.”
With reference to the ongoing KV negotiations, the ÖGB boss described the warnings of a wage-price spiral as “humbug”. The union would not speculate on future inflation. The basis of the negotiations is solely the inflation of the last twelve months. The companies “earned really well” during that time, according to Katzian. “We would also like to have something of that.”
Source: Nachrichten
