In the two years that Lars Løkke Rasmussen was prime minister, his government slapped an extra 131 new taxes or duties on Denmark, 101 of which were to a greater or lesser extent paid for by Danish industry, according to Tax Ministry figures.

And as budget negotiations near their final stages, the Liberals have made tax reductions for industry one of their main demands.

The Liberal budget proposal goes as far as saying that “The tax freeze meant that for almost 10 years… companies could confidently carry out investment in the knowledge that taxes and duties would not be increased”.

Confidence, however, does not seem to be the order of the day among many companies and their organisations.

“I don’t think it’s particularly pleasant to hear. It shows that company costs were also increased under the previous government. Each time that extra burdens have been put on industry we have pointed out that this was the wrong way to go,” says Dansk Erhverv CEO Jens Klarskov.

Danish Confederation of Industries Director Tine Roed is also unhappy with the barrage of new duties that were imposed.

“The Liberal-Conservative government had a tax freeze that we were happy with. But that doesn’t alter the fact that we experienced a long list of negative cost measures. Companies felt that the conditions under which they had invested were changed,” Roed says.

Many of the extra burdens on industry came from the tax reform in 2009, which industry welcomed, as it reduced income tax by some DKK30billion which could be used for increased consumption.

But companies paid much of the bill – among other reasons due to the multimedia tax, the tax on labour costs - and the tax on fats, which the Liberals and Conservatives have later regretted.

Green duties were also introduced.

“In the final period of the Lib-Con government, the tax freeze was a pretty lightweight affair. More rhetoric than actual protection,” says Dansk Energi CEO Lars Aagaard.

The Liberals and Conservatives are not the only ones to be denounced – with some of the current government’s dispositions also harvesting criticism. Industry is not least unhappy with a five-fold increase in the NOx duty which was originally imposed under the then Liberal Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

FACEBOOK – Follow Politiken’s News in English