Puglia: Irpef surcharges of up to EUR 840 for a EUR 349 million health deficit
Governor Decaro: 'Closure with the past, more than 70 per cent of Apulians will not experience increases or will have increases limited to around 4 euro per month'
Key points
To cover the €349.3 million health care hole for 2025, the question was the size of the percentage levy and the possible exemptions. And so it was. The Irpef surtax for EUR 241 million of the total will all be borne by gross incomes above EUR 15,000 per year and will range from a minimum of EUR 4 to EUR 66 per month.
According to simulations illustrated by the regional governor, Antonio Decaro, the manoeuvre will entail monthly increases in the Irpef burden of 4.17 euros per month for gross incomes between 15 and 28 thousand euros (the surtax will rise from 0,2 per cent to 0.9 per cent), €19.33 per month for gross incomes between €28 and €50,000 per year (the surtax will rise from 0.4 per cent to 2 per cent), and €66.62 or more for incomes between €50 and €100,000 per year (it will rise from 0.62 per cent to 2.1 per cent). The new rates apply to the whole year: for employees the withholding starts in June with a final adjustment. The self-employed will pay at the time of advance payments and the final adjustment.
'More than 70% of Apulians,' Decaro emphasises, 'will not have an increase or will have an increase limited to about EUR 4 per month. So 32.83% of taxpayers, those who declare up to 15,000 euro a year, remain outside.
Expenditure cuts of 107 million are planned
The other lever of the manoeuvre was the 107 million cut in the regional machinery and politics. The main cause of the 2025 deficit was personnel, +€188 million, or 43.42% of the total higher costs due to the new hires in 2025 of 2,367 employees, the renewal of collective bargaining agreements, adjustments to the funds for overtime and allowances, and additional services provided as incentives to doctors. This is followed by pharmaceuticals with EUR 117 million, medical devices and risk provisions with EUR 35 million each, social welfare with EUR 25 million, Sanitaservice with EUR 15 million, rentals with EUR 10 million and maintenance with EUR 8 million. More taxes and less spending by politicians may not be enough. Mef and the Ministry of Health, in fact, have asked the region, and commissioner Decaro, to implement the Operational Plan with the reorganisation, with cuts in wards and beds, in small hospitals.
The aim is to increase the health fund for all regions
Commenting on the anti-deficit plan, Decaro took full responsibility for the measure, 'which closes with the past, and I will also fight to ensure that the National Health Fund increases for all regions, so as to bring it into line with the increase in costs, especially those that do not depend on us'. It is precisely on this that the centre-right opposition reacts, pointing out that, in four years, the Apulian health system has obtained an extra 700 million from the national government, rising from 8.093 billion in 2022 to 8.794 billion in 2025. Davide Bellomo (Fi) asks Decaro to admit that 'there has been a wicked management of public resources by the left, which has misgoverned Apulia for 20 years, and that on pharmaceutical spending, the health directors appointed by the left have exceeded the budget without paying anything in terms of forfeiture, as prescribed by law. And now the citizens are paying'.
