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Budget negotiations moved to the Prime Minister’s Office

The budget negotiations between the governing parties and the Socialist Left Party (SV) are being moved to the Prime Minister's Office (SMK), TV 2 reports.

Published: 27 November 2022 15:34 CET
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According to TV2, there is still a large distance between the negotiating parties when it comes to tax and oil issues. Photo by Elisabeth Mellingen Greve / Unsplash

The negotiations have been ongoing throughout the weekend. The process is now being moved to the SMK, but the members of the Finance Committee at the Norwegian parliament (Storting) will continue leading the talks.

The party leaders are already involved in the process, the news bureau NTB reports.

The Labour Party (AP), the Centre Party (SP), and the SV have been negotiating since November 7th to reach an agreement on next year’s state budget.

Since the AP and the SP have a minority government, they must get the support of another party in the Storting to get a majority for their budget.

The negotiations are currently being led by Eigil Knutsen (AP), Geir Pollestad (SP), and Torgeir Knag Fylkesnes (SV).

The three have had several meetings over the weekend. According to TV2, there is still a large distance between the negotiating parties when it comes to tax and oil issues.

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POLITICS

How Norway’s 2025 budget will impact foreign residents

Norway’s government won’t unveil its budget for another few weeks, but several proposals, such as income tax cuts, have already been made public. Here's how foreign residents in Norway will be affected.

Published: 19 September 2024 12:06 CEST
How Norway's 2025 budget will impact foreign residents

Norway’s budget for 2025 will be unveiled on October 7th. It is the last budget the current government will present before the general election next year.

Tax cuts

Finance minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum said this summer that those on ordinary incomes would pay less income tax in 2025. How much income tax will be cut is currently unknown.

Tax residents of Norway currently pay a flat tax rate of 22 percent, and then a further “bracket tax” based on how much they earn. For example, those who earn up to 670,000 kroner per year pay a four percent bracket tax, while those making between 670,001 and 937,900 kroner pay a 13.6 percent bracket tax.

READ ALSO: How does Norway’s bracket tax for income work?

Norway’s tax card system would also be tweaked to benefit those with part-time jobs. Next year, you can earn up to 100,000 before paying tax. This could benefit foreign students in Norway.

Finances

The government will continue its electric subsidy for households next year. The government announced its intention to continue the policy this spring.

Currently, the state covers 90 percent of the electricity price above 73 øre per kWh – or 91.25 øre including VAT.

Residents of Norway’s 212 least central municipalities will have 25,000 kroner of their student loans written off per year from 2026.

Those in Finnmark and Nord-Troms will have their loans written off at a rate of 60,000 kroner a year.

READ MORE: The incentives to attract people to northern Norway

Crime

The government will spend an extra 2.8 billion kroner on fighting crime. Of this, 2.4 billion kroner will go directly to beefing up the number of police officers in Norway. Some 90 million kroner would be put towards cracking down on financial crime.

Furthermore, 405 million kroner would also be spent on fighting youth crime, by creating a fast track court for young offenders and creating more juvenile detention places.

Travel changes

Up to 2.9 billion kroner extra spending will go into maintaining Norway’s rail infrastructure. Signal and track failures have been a constant source of delays in east Norway, where services regularly struggle with punctuality.

Over 12 billion kroner will be spent on Norway’s rail system.

Norway could finally reveal more details on its proposed tourist tax. The country’s industry minister, Cecilie Myrseth, has previously said that a proposal would be tabled this autumn.

The minister didn’t say whether this would be related to the raft of proposals included in the budget.

A potential tourist tax has long been promised by the current government as part of the Hurdal Agreement it was formed on in 2021.

As part of its budget cooperation with the Socialist Left Party, the government will be required to assess whether a subsidy scheme should be introduced for long-distance bus travel in Norway.

Bus routes without an alternative, such as train, could be subsidised under the scheme.

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