Increased flight tax & health insurance costs floated in budget talks
The Cabinet is considering increasing the healthcare deductible and higher flight tax for longer distances as it tries to find ways to fill the gaping hole in the national budget. Ministers are meeting regularly to negotiate the Spring Memorandum - the spring update for the 2023 budget.
Several sources told De Telegraaf that Minister Rob Jetten (Climate) proposed increasing the flight tax for longer-distance flights. The air passenger tax is now 26.43 euros per traveler departing from the Netherlands. Jetten suggested doubly that tax for flights over 2,500 kilometers and event rippling it for over 6,000 kilometers, according to the newspaper’s sources.
That would make the tax on a holiday flight to a Turkish seaside resort over 50 euros and a flight to Thailand over 75 euros.
According to RTL Nieuws’s sources, the Cabinet is discussing increasing the healthcare deductible by 25 euros per year in the coming years. Last year, the government froze the deductible at 385 euros. The plan now on the table would gradually increase the deductible from 2024 to 485 euros in 2027.
Another proposal on the table is asking wealthy older people who need long-term care to make a larger personal contribution to their care. According to the broadcaster’s sources, the Cabinet worries that both proposals won’t get enough support in the Senate.
Several setbacks have left a gaping hole in the budget. The Cabinet is trying to figure out how to cover the costs of the purchasing power protection measures it took against inflation, such as the energy price cap. The costs of asylum shelters are also much higher than expected. And the high interest rates mean that the government is paying billions more on state debts.
The government is also discussing measures to achieve the climate goal of reducing CO2 emissions by at least 55 percent in 2030. Climate Minister Jetten has already proposed several measures, including making it mandatory that fuel sold at filling stations in the Netherlands be a blend of sustainable and more expensive fuels, which would push up petrol prices even further and thus discourage the use of cars.
