Norwegian Politics | Ap on slide: - Of course room for modifications

Who would have thought that the salmon tax would become the “new word” this fall? That’s it, now Ap is on the move.

Watch the video interview with Fisheries Minister Bjornar Skiran here:

Hetera Mayor Ole Laurits Haugen (Ap) leads a network of 78 coastal municipalities and municipalities, most of which are governed by the Ap and Sp, which vigorously protest the salmon tax.

– We are now really impatient, Haugen (AP) told Netavien on Monday.

Also read: Mayors are in full dispute over the salmon tax

The tax should be calculated on the basis of the standard rate, and this makes the mayor occupy all the sockets.

The whole idea of a standard price fails in the current model. He believes the benchmark is the spot rate offered on the exchange, which has limited access to data and relies on better-quality salmon.

This is not the case, he said:

– Given that the average standard price for next year will be NOK 80. So today we’re negotiating long-term contracts, where we base NOK 70, for various reasons. This means that you still have to pay the basic interest tax of 40 percent on the ten NOK difference.

– Everyone understands that there will be mistakes!

“There is no contradiction in principle between the land rent tax and increased fish processing in Norway,” Fisheries Minister Bjornar Skjeran told the press on his way to a central council meeting on Monday.

– Of course, room for modification

Skjæran was also asked if the new salmon tax is destroying long-term fixed-rate contracts, as some analysts and companies claim.

– When the consultations are over, we will prepare the final proposal for consideration by the Norwegian Parliament. He replied: We have a real hearing, and this means that the arrangement may be different when we go to Parliament than it was at the starting point.

Also read: The mayor of the Labor Party is expelled from his government

– Do you already see that changes are needed?

We said from day one that the consultation process we have now is real. This means that there is of course room for adjustments in the scheme we started with, Skjæran tells Nettavisen.

Thousands of layoff notices

Core companies Lerøy and Salmar each sent notices of layoffs – to about 1,000 employees, based on a salmon tax.

On Tuesday came Leroy’s third-quarter results, which showed a record profit of 831 million – 44 percent higher than last year.

However, they paint a bleak picture of the future.

And last year, long before the controversial salmon tax was mentioned, Fiskrebladet could tell that Salmar had sent out notices of layoffs to more than 600 people, long before the salmon tax became widespread.

Therefore, such warnings are not uncommon from the industry this time of year.

When asked if Salmar was involved in “extortion,” Skieran replied, “No comment.”

But Finance Minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedom (Sp) goes further:

It is important to mention that the government has not proposed a base rent tax on the part of the industry for which layoffs are now being announced. There is no proposed core rental tax on processing, Finance Minister NTB said on Monday.

Watch the video interview with Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Storr (AP) here:

Vedum invites you to a meeting on Friday

The proposed basic rental tax for the aquaculture industry applies to the production of salmon, trout and rainbow trout, and is capped at 40 percent. A minimum discount of 4000-5000 tons will ensure that only the biggest players pay.

On Friday, Vedum will meet with the five or six largest agricultural companies in the Ministry of Finance on Friday this week to talk about land rent tax for the publisher.

– They will receive land rent tax, and they will have to pay more. But of course they should not be taxed on the income they do not have. They should contribute more to Sahel, said Vidom.

New optimism: – the benchmark price of the fall

He brings out a small smile from Hytra Mayor Ole Lauritz Haugen:

“I think there has now been a recognition that the model has some unintended consequences, and therefore calls for input on proposals that provide improvements,” Haugen tells Nettavisen on Tuesday.

He points in particular to Finance Minister Vedom who said “…of course they shouldn’t tax the income they don’t have, but they should contribute more to the Sahel – they should.”

– It gives me expectations that the so-called benchmark price is about to fall and that there is reason for optimism regarding the host municipalities’ share of the expected increased income for society, the mayor of Hetra tells Nettavisen.