The Storting scrapes the tourist tax – altaposten.no

The government’s proposed tourist tax was wrecked when the Business Committee discussed the matter on Tuesday. Instead, they went for a treasure for cruise tourists, as the government would not at first do, but which they later brought into their revised proposals.

Until this weekend, the Labor Party refused to introduce the treasure on the cruise tourists, but turned after strong criticism and a number of input. However, they still wanted taxes for overnight guests and hotel stays.

The Storting did not want it.

– The government’s original proposal was in fact a pure hotel tax, something the Right is skeptical of. We note that the government is now talking warmly about a cruise fee that they were impossible to get in place a few weeks ago, Nikolai Astrup told the Right to NTB before the committee meeting.

Astrup calls visitor contributions a « good place to start ».

No scratch in the paint

Business policy spokesman Rune Støstad in the Labor Party has held the case for the government party in the committee. He thinks it is good that they have started, even though the proposal did not receive support from the business committee.

– It is a pity that we did not get the other parties for this, and given the opportunity to the municipalities, says Støstad to NTB.

He denies that this is a scratch in the lacquer for the Labor Party.

– It is good that we now get started with visitor contributions and start up with the cruise tourists and Svalbard. We have worked and tried to accommodate the other parties by limiting it to Northern Norway and making it less extensive-but they were not yet willing to enter, he says.

Good for everyone, the Left thinks

– We are brilliantly pleased that the Storting has now turned 180 degrees upside down on the government’s proposal. We have gotten away the hotel tax and received tax on cruises, says business policy spokesman Alfred Bjørlo in the Left.

Bjørlo calls the decision a milestone.

– It is good for the environment and good for business and hotel industry on land that does not get a bloody unfair tax that the cruise industry is released, says Bjørlo.

The Progress Party only towards

Frp was the only party that opposed the proposal for a cruise tourist tax.

– Political left -hand work, says Bengt Rune Strifeldt, business policy spokesperson in the Progress Party.

Strifeldt believes the committee should rather send the entire proposal back to the government.

The industry committee made its recommendation in the case on Tuesday, and it will be up to plenary treatment in the Storting next week.