Budget bill worth €23.5 billion, energy bills decree and €100-a-year fund for newborns

The Council of Ministers, convened on Wednesday 28 October at 3pm at Palazzo Chigi, examined the 2027-2029 Budget bill, worth a total of €23.5 billion. Measures envisaged include a reduced Irpef rate for young people, a cut in taxes on rental income and a card dedicated to healthcare expenses for the elderly.

Negotiations remained open until the last minute on one of the most debated points of the measure: the extension of the 33% Irpef rate to incomes above €50,000, proposed by Forza Italia and not yet defined in the approved text. The Minister of Economy and Finance Giancarlo Giorgetti summed up the approach to the budget as follows: “The government will bring home what is possible, not the impossible.”

At the same meeting the Council of Ministers enacted a decree law with urgent provisions to reduce the cost of electricity and gas for households and businesses. The reform of the framework law on the crafts sector was also approved, updating legislation dating back to 1985.

Among the measures is also a fund called “new births”, structured as a pension fund: starting in 2027 the State will pay €100 a year for each newborn, until they turn 18. The measure originated from a proposal by Giorgetti himself and is shared by all government allies, according to what was reported during the same session.

The package approved on Wednesday brings together three different levels of public intervention: the budget bill itself, a decree with more immediate effect on energy costs, and a structural reform of a productive sector, the crafts industry, whose governing regulations had not been updated in over four decades. The issue of the 33% rate above €50,000 remains the variable still to be resolved during the parliamentary passage of the budget.