Hagen demands that Government keeps its promises (Nationen)

While Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik calls for budget moderation, Progress Party chairman Carl I. Hagen is demanding that the Government keeps its promises. "From the signals we have received so far I have no great expectations regarding the Government’s budget proposal, but the coalition has promised to cut taxes and must keep those promises. Mr Bondevik and his partners should read their own policy declaration very carefully before they publish their budget proposal," said Mr Hagen.

Privileged (Vårt Land)

According to historian Einar Lie, the Bondevik government is in a financially privileged position. Mr Lie says he does not understand the PM’s repeated claim that it will be incredibly difficult to reach an agreement on next year’s national budget. "The Government has a fantastic opportunity at the moment to give priority to both tax relief and other areas in the national budget," says Mr Lie, who is a researcher at the University of Oslo’s Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture.

Labour’s tax cuts would cost NOK 7.4 billion (Dagbladet)

Labour chairman Thorbjørn Jagland’s sudden enthusiasm for cuts in indirect taxation could turn out to be more expensive than he would like. It would cost the Norwegian state well over NOK 7 billion to cut alcohol and tobacco duties to Swedish levels. Mr Jagland has said that high levels of indirect taxation led to Labour’s election defeat last year. He told the party’s national executive committee at the end of last week that he would like to see a new cross-party accord on taxes, which also includes indirect taxation. But Mr Jagland’s wish to cut Norwegian indirect taxes to Swedish levels would cost the country dear.

Government benefits from Labour’s tax cuts (Verdens Gang)

Two-thirds of the tax cuts we will receive this year come courtesy of the former Labour government. Kjell Magne Bondevik and his coalition partners have decided to wait until closer to the next general election to keep their promises of tax relief for the man in the street. The sitting coalition has promised tax cuts of NOK 31 billion over a four-year period, but so far the change of government has been of most benefit to businesses and investors. "Businesses have received the biggest benefits up to now, but there will be new steps in the years ahead which the public will also notice," said Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik.

Stoltenberg glad about women’s rights debate (Dagsavisen)

"Greater competition between the political parties over the issue of women’s rights is only to the good. It is women themselves who benefit," said Labour deputy leader Jens Stoltenberg, who believes that the first priority now is to provide pre-school day-care for all children, at half the current cost to parents. "This represents the biggest financial commitment," he said.

Employers’ leader attacks public sector employees (Dagens Næringsliv)

Nurses, police officers and other public sector employees are expecting great things from this year’s round of wage negotiations. To justify their wage demands these groups often point to the fact that private sector employees earn much more than they do. But the president of the largest employers’ organization in the Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry (NHO), Karl Nysterud of the Federation of Norwegian Engineering Industries, claims that public sector employees are not telling the whole truth. "It is possible public employees have lower salaries, but they have extremely good pension schemes and they managed to negotiate a half-hour shorter working week than other employees when working hours were cut in 1987," he said.

Food prices unimportant to half of all shoppers (Aftenposten)

We are not as price-conscious when it comes to food as our repeated shopping trips to Sweden would indicate. Almost half of shoppers rarely or never take the trouble to compare food prices, according to a recent survey. And while 44 per cent of those interviewed thought they would check to see if food prices had fallen after the VAT reform, which halved the rate of VAT on food, only 18 per cent actually did so. In fact there are few indications that there would have been a public outcry if prices had not been cut following the VAT reform. 40 per cent of customers said they would not have done anything if prices had stayed the same.

Lower taxes on eco-friendly cars (Aftenposten)

The registration fee for cars with a low fuel consumption and low carbon emissions could be cut in 2004. This is one solution currently being considered by a Finance Ministry committee which is working on a new system of car taxation. Both the Norwegian Automobile Association and the environmental foundation Bellona applaud the plans for a change in the ways cars are taxed.

Additional cash benefit for all (Vårt Land)

The Government is in favour of extending the additional cash benefit for children under three to all adopted children, regardless of how old they are when they arrive in Norway. Today all parents of children between the ages of one and three are offered the additional cash benefit if they choose other day-care solutions than a place at a local authority-run nursery. Children who are adopted from abroad often do not have the chance to qualify for the full two years of benefit because many of them are not new-born when they arrive.

1 Worth Noting

1. The Conservatives have walked off with all the money, leaving Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik poor as a church mouse as he starts putting together the next budget. The PM’s budget problems are due to the Conservatives’ powerful drive to introduce substantial cuts in direct and indirect taxation. (Dagbladet)
2. Defence Minister Kristin Krohn Devold has announced further cuts in the defence structure which the Storting agreed on last year. (NRK/NTB)
3. More than one in three Norwegian women works part-time. This is three times as many as in Finland, and a much higher proportion than in Sweden and Denmark. Norwegian men therefore have a financial advantage which lasts them all their lives. Men not only earn more while they are working, their pensions are also larger. (Dagsavisen)
4. Even though Norway produces an increasing number of scientific papers which are published internationally, a smaller and smaller proportion of this research effort is carried out at Norwegian universities. (Dagsavisen)
5. Kjell Inge Røkke saw one of his dreams come true when the merger between Aker Maritime and Kværner came into effect yesterday. Mr Røkke has dreamt of taking control of Kværner since 1995. (Aftenposten)
6. Kværner’s chief executive, Helge Lund, demands brutal honesty from his employees. Problems are no longer to be swept under the carpet. "If management is to know what is going on we have to have openness – and that can sometimes be brutal. But that is what will enable us to provide trustworthy information to our banks, shareholders and society at large," he said. (Verdens Gang)
7. Trade and Industry Minister Ansgar Gabrielsen is planning to hire a PR company to develop a communications strategy for state ownership. Three PR companies are competing for the commission. (Aftenposten)
8. Four years ago the Storting instructed the Civil Aviation Authority to move its training facilities from Gardermoen to Tjeldsund in Nordland county. Despite two further reminders from ministers, no move has been made. (Aftenposten)

2 Today’s comment from Verdens Gang

Agriculture Minister and chairman of the Liberal Party Lars Sponheim has again whipped up a storm of controversy. This time it is over Mr Sponheim’s claim that travelling to Sweden to shop for cheap food was a ‘naff’ thing to do. He has also said that Norwegian agricultural policy cannot be dictated by old folk on minimum state pensions who cross the border in search of cheap food and alcohol. According to Mr Sponheim, supermarkets belonging to the Norwegian cut-price Rema and Rimi chains are reminiscent of shops in the former Soviet Union. It is fairly staggering that an agriculture minister has the gall to make such comments. And worst of all – he makes no apology for them. This is, therefore, Mr Sponheim’s considered opinion. It would appear that the Agriculture Minister’s ‘social antennae’ have blown down. At the very least it seems as though he has little contact with reality and the issues Norwegian consumers are concerned about. If he still has not understood why thousands of Norwegians cross the border into Sweden each day to buy food, he should find himself another job. It is the peculiarly high Norwegian food prices which send us over the border in droves. And for the time being it is Mr Sponheim’s job to do something about it.