Jan Oravec

The second package to reduce the administrative burden on business in Slovakia has recently been approved. The first one was approved by the Parliament back in July 2020. It contained 115 measures. Back then, Ministry of Economy invited the public to send in further suggestions.

The tax system should not be used to implement social policy objectives. The tax system should be purely a mechanism that collects from citizens and companies, in the least distortionary way, the least amount of money necessary for the functioning of the state, the financing of its obligations and its policies.

The economy has not yet recovered from the corona-crisis and is already threatened by another serious danger: green-flation. Based on the sound similarity of two words, inflation-greenflation, this new English phrase has only recently emerged.

June 2021 will go down in the history of improving the business environment in Slovakia. It has joined the countries that have introduced a system to reduce the costs of doing business, which stem from bureaucracy and other regulations. This will help Slovakia to recover from the crisis, increase business productivity, increase competitiveness and, ultimately, improve people\'s standard of living in general.

The tax ceiling is not designed to strengthen the debt ceiling, as the latter has been devised so that the irresponsible governments in the future could not impose bring an unprecedented burden on the public finances.

Slovakia is a small country. It cannot afford to be uneducated. Still, the country has been sinking in the PISA rankings that measure “smartness” by comparing results of educational systems. Many small countries rank ahead of Slovakia.

The Slovak pension, education, and health systems and services should not depend on the government holding power at any given time. Instead, a fundamental political consensus is required. Better than calls from abroad for Slovakia to behave more rationally, the nation itself must come to its senses.

Today´s world is a product of values, stances, and deeds of previous generations. Those were formed by political institutions, economies, and social relations. These factors guided the world´s modus operandi. But this world is disappearing.

Examples of senseless Slovak economic policy that combines financial and bureaucratic blows always aimed at a different sector of the economy are thick on the ground. One of the most memorable ones is the imposed levy on singular shops and chains, also known as “food tax”.

The November 2018 communal elections in Slovakia revealed a growing trend. In the battle of party candidates vs. the independents it was more often than not the latter who emerged victorious. Parties have been becoming the political dinosaurs of modern age.