Enterprises: 3.5 billion for Transition 5.0, ZES aid and expensive materials in construction

Budget sessions are traditionally full of surprises. The one on the 2026 manoeuvre takes shape mid-morning in the Senate; when Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti appears in person at the budget committee's bureau to explain that there is something new: 3.5 billion.

So much is needed to finance the waiting list of companies that have run out of money on Transition 5.0 (1.7-1.8 billion, according to calculations updated at the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy), the resources (1.3 billion) to avoid a 39.62% cut in tax credits due to those who have booked tax rebates in the Unified Economic Zone of the South, and to reinforce the fund for expensive materials as requested by construction companies. The coverage would come, for about one billion, from a measure already discussed with the insurance companies, i.e. a surcharge of 85% of the compulsory contribution to the National Health Service paid on third-party liability policies (it is equal to 10.5% of the premium). Also on the table would be a mechanism to compensate for the revenue that the INPS loses when workers opt for supplementary pensions. Another 200 million could come from the regions, which are willing to give up this sum in exchange for the possibility of distributing among themselves the financial spaces made available by the 'debt cutter'. And in the game will also enter the remodulation of funds for the Strait Bridge, which contrary to ministerial ambitions may only see the opening of the first construction sites next year, depending on when and how the clash with the Court of Auditors ends. "Transport Minister Matteo Salvini is determined to build the bridge and will do everything he can to speed up the start of the work," the Infrastructures report, pointing out that the timeframe of the allocations will be revised in light of the failure to start the work this year, but without reducing the overall 13.5 billion: an expenditure of 635 million was planned for 2025, net of the share of the 3.882 billion not annualised from the 2021-27 Development and Cohesion Fund, after the 780 million allocated to 2024. The move, however, met with the strides of the Democratic Party, which, through its secretary Elly Schlein, accused the government of using the money from the bridge to cover "the messes made on Transition 5.0", while the Dems asked for it to be shifted to "the infrastructures necessary for the Sicilians and Calabrians".

But more generally, it is the new halt on the path of a manoeuvre that has been waiting for weeks to be voted on that has heated up the atmosphere in Palazzo Madama. Antonio Misiani, economic manager of the PD, speaks of 'embarrassing management', M5S parliamentarians claim that 'the manoeuvre is to be thrown away' while for Iv 'they got everything wrong'.

Controversy has been traditional for many years in the more or less convulsive course of manoeuvres. The calendar, however, is now getting tighter. And by now it also promises to bring back between Christmas and the New Year the senators called upon, once the budget law is closed, to convert the Anticipi decree already dismissed by the Chamber of Deputies (it expires on the 29th) and to give their last vote on the reform of the Court of Auditors by the end of the year, when the extension of the tax shield expires.

A new meeting of the group leader will decide the new steps this morning, but in any case it is now unlikely that the manoeuvre will reach the Chamber of Deputies before Monday. The government's own amendment, announced for yesterday afternoon, will only show up in Palazzo Madama this morning, because the definition of the coverage turned out to be more complex than expected. The 3.5 billion is worth almost a fifth of the original manoeuvre, which with the new interventions would therefore rise towards 22 billion. All this, of course, with unchanged balances, i.e. without affecting the deficit and debt lines written in the Structural Budget Plan. It is precisely to this objective that the hunt for the alternative funds indispensable to hold up the government's corrective measure is directed. Which, moreover, also has the task of extending the scope of the hyper-amortisation to corporate purchases until 30 September 2028.