Due to its heavy workload, Switzerland’s National Council is sitting in for a special session for the next few days, focusing on unresolved issues of importance to the population.
This is what’s ahead on the MPs agenda until Wednesday May 7th:
Taxes
The National Council will mull over the bill on the introduction of individual taxation for the second time, after it and the Council of States narrowly approved the proposal in the first round of deliberations.
Both chambers of the parliament agree that tax discrimination against married people should be abolished, but despite the widespread support for this issue, it is not a ‘done deal’ yet, as some details — for instance, how to reduce financial losses from the introduction of individual taxation — remain to be fine-tuned.
READ ALSO: Switzerland moves closer to new tax system for married couples
Childcare
The National Council is once again looking into the financing of daycare facilities.
It has been in favour of federal funding for these services, but the Council of States prefers these facilities to be financed by employers and the cantons.
It also believes that parents themselves should have a role in financing childcare centres by contributing up to 10 percent of their incomes toward this goal.
The National Council, on the other hand, wants to make the federal government more proactive in funds allocation.
Parenting
The National Council will decide whether the Civil Code should be amended to include parents’ obligation to raise their children without violence.
Today this is permitted, but the Federal Council would like to outlaw corporal punishment and other degrading actions.
It also wants to strengthen prevention measures against this kind of behaviour, though this is not unanimous — deputies from the Swiss People’s Party oppose this move on the grounds that the state should not interfere in private family matters.
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Congestion at the Gotthard Tunnel
Before and after every public holiday, kilometres-long bottlenecks, which stall the traffic for hours, are forming at the Gotthard tunnel, which is Switzerland’s gateway to the south.
A narrow majority of the National Council rejected an initiative from the canton of Uri (which lies at the tunnel’s northern portal), that called for traffic management measures, including a reservation system for a through traffic.
The Transport Committee submitted two motions instead.
The first would allow cantons to temporarily close local roads to alternative traffic in the event of traffic jams on north-south transit axes.
The second calls for navigation system operators to be obliged to inform drivers of such closures.
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Tourism tax
The National Council has given its approval to a lower Value Added Tax (VAT) for tourism industry — 3.8 percent instead of the usual 8.1 percent levied on other businesses, in order to boost the sector.
This rule will be in place until 2027 — even though it is costs the government up to 300 million francs in tax revenue each year.
