Coalition Council Hasn't Finished Dealing with Distraint Amnesty

Bratislava, January 15 (TASR) – The Coalition Council hasn’t yet finished dealing with the issue of a distraint amnesty, and will return to it in late January, TASR has learnt from Justice Ministry spokesman Peter Bubla.

Justice Minister Lucia Zitnanska (Most-Hid) presented her proposal to the coalition partners from Smer-SD and the Slovak National Party (SNS). SNS first deputy chairman Jaroslav Paska said that the partners may come up with objections.

“At the Coalition Council today the minister presented a concept to the coalition partners. The coalition partners will study it and will return to it at the end of January. When we definitively agree on this proposal, we’ll be happy to present individual measures in detail,” said Bubla.

Paska confirmed for TASR that some matters relating to the distraint amnesty are still unresolved. According to him, SNS would like to focus on certain deadlines within the proposals for changes. For example, he thinks that it would be good to deal mainly with older distraint processes in particular and not those that appeared a few months ago.

According to Paska, even Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) thinks that the amnesty needn’t necessarily be applied to everyone affected by enforced collection procedures. A mechanism for handling people who have come under the amnesty should be found as well.

Paska went on to say that Minister Zitnanska also raised the topic of proving the origin of the property of public officials. The coalition discussed whether proving the origin of property could be resolved differently. According to Paska, Fico indicated options relating to tax laws. The premier conceded last year that a new constitutional law on proving the origin of property could be adopted.