The SEZ Sardinia , that of tax relief for businesses on 2,700 hectares spread across fifteen municipalities, has its months numbered . With Monday's vote in the Chamber, the establishment of a unique special economic zone in the whole of Southern Italy is approaching the finish line. It means that on the island , after a year and a half of institutional activity and 120 million in investments already approved, the dream of the 50 percent IRES (it is the tax on corporate income) ends . «Only the tax credit concessions remain, once the bands have been divided», says Aldo Cadau , the extraordinary commissioner appointed on 4 August 2022 by the then Minister for Territorial Cohesion, Mara Carfagna .
In the Meloni Government, the position was taken by Raffaele Fitto who also holds the delegation to the Pnrr, the recovery and resilience plan within which the eight regional SEZs of the South had been conceived, destined now to end up under the same umbrella.
Commissioner, does your mandate end in December pending national reform?
«My mandate will presumably end in the first months of 2024, between February and March, when the mission unit in Rome will be activated».
Let's summarize: the Zes was created at the behest of the Draghi Government within the post-Covid relaunch interventions envisaged by the Pnrr. You were appointed by Carfagna to do what?
«We started from scratch and managed the Special Economic Zone of Sardinia, operational in the six industrial and port areas of Cagliari, Portoscuso, Tortolì, Oristano, Olbia and Porto Torres. The overall extension of our SEZ is 2,700 hectares which also fall within the municipalities of Alghero, Assemini, Buddusò, Elmas, Monti, Santa Giusta, Sarroch, Sassari and Uta".
Where are the Sardinian Zes offices?
«In Cagliari in via Firenze: eleven people work there. Technical support arrived in October 2022: this year everyone worked with great professionalism and passion."
Will the technical support eleven also go home?
«Yes, the new organization of the single national SEZ does not include territorial offices».
The impression is that he is not happy.
«We all believed in the Zes Sardinia challenge. Immediately. Starting with entrepreneurs. As many as 52 investment requests came from them, in the most varied sectors, from food to manufacturing."
Have all the questions been answered?
«We have authorized 21. Six were dismissed due to incompetence, while 16 are in progress. We have also given the green light to nine Scia (certified notification of start of activity), connected with the single authorisations. Add the draft projects that have already reached our offices for pre-analysis."
Value of the 21 investments authorized in the SEZ area?
«We are in the order of 120 million euros».
Total value of all interventions, including possible ones?
«I would say just under 600 million».
What are the risks with the closure of the SEZ Sardinia?
"Regulatory uncertainty can only weigh on the 450 million investments that are on paper, but which risk suffering a setback."
For what reason?
«To date it is not clear what will happen from 1 January 2024. The problem also concerns the availability of resources».
In what sense?
«To halve the cost of IRES and cover the tax credit, 1.3 billion had been allocated with the 2022 budget law. Money that went to cover investments in the eight small special economic zones established in Sardinia, Abruzzo, Calabria, Campania, Molise, Puglia and Sicily. For the single SEZ throughout the South, which will be extended to all of the eight regional territories, the overall allocation is 1.8 billion. It is easy for the money to run out in the first months of the year, even if the Rent reform has cut the IRES reduction."
What tax breaks will remain?
"The tax credit concessions will remain: 45 percent for small businesses, 35 percent for medium-sized businesses and 25 percent for large ones."
Is there a strong point of the new course?
«Certainly the existence of a national strategic plan. Southern Italy needs to recover a different speed: the South has enormous potential but growth is too slow."
Will it finally be the relaunch of the South?
«To understand whether the new special economic zone will support the recovery, we will have to wait for the implementing Prime Ministerial Decree».
Was efficiency the keystone in the SEZ Sardinia?
«Undoubtedly. We issued the single authorizations in an average of thirty days."
How is the submission of applications currently organised?
«The companies that invest present the documentation to the digital desk of the Sardinia Zes, which convenes the Services Conference with all the bodies involved in the request for authorization purposes. The different offices have thirty days to express their opinion. Otherwise the principle of silent consent applies. At the end of the month, the Zes commissioner issues the single authorization. Which is a building permit in all respects. But instead of having to communicate with ten different bodies, the investor presents a single application."
Administrative simplification is also possible in Italy, therefore.
«The regional SEZs have worked because they are based on cutting bureaucracy, guaranteeing responses in a very short time. The biggest fears we hear from entrepreneurs about the near future concern precisely the timing of issuing the single authorization. We, with our streamlined structure, have also worked very well with the Port System Authority of the Sea of Sardinia, which is responsible for giving the green light to interventions in state-owned areas".
In Sardinia, how did the other bodies called to contribute to administrative simplification respond?
«In very few cases there was silent consent. All offices expressed their opinions within thirty days. We have based all the work of Zes Sardinia on the spirit of good collaboration between entities."
In your opinion, why shouldn't the island's special economic zone close completely?
«Because it is a structure on the territory and as such capable of communicating easily with the Port System Authority, as mentioned, with the industrial consortia, with the Region and with the fifteen Municipalities that fall within the SEZ. The Special Economic Zone of Sardinia is an entity that talks to everyone every day and especially to entrepreneurs."
In these fourteen months of leadership of the Zes, have you found no limits?
«Yes, I found some. The regional special economic zones were established with too rigid limits: the 2,700 hectares of our island proved to be too few compared to a regional territory that extends over 24 thousand square kilometers. On this spatial limit I can cite a concrete case: Heineken, which produces in Sardinia under the Ichnusa brand, operates in the industrial area of Assemini-Macchiareddu. The brewery is surrounded by areas that fall within the SEZ, but the company is outside the border. For this reason Heineken was unable to take advantage of the tax relief. A re-perimeterization tool would have solved the problem but it was not provided for by the law establishing the regional SEZs. It must be said that with the Single Economic Zone this risk will no longer be run: the whole of Sardinia will be a SEZ and the same will happen in the rest of Southern Italy."
To summarize: the Rent reform will come into force on January 1st. By March, presumably, you must dismantle the regional offices and transfer everything to the Mission Unit in Rome. What will happen to cases that have been investigated but not closed?
«The problem that entrepreneurs are facing also concerns the requests that have already been authorised. Let's take the case of a company that has already optioned the land and only needs to build the factory: amid regulatory uncertainty, that company blocks the works. The risk that there may not be enough resources to obtain the tax credit is too high. And here we return to the previous discussion: the Zes worked because it guaranteed regulatory and financial certainty. I wouldn't want the Fitto reform to call everything into question. An entrepreneur, rightly, does not take leaps of faith."
In these fourteen months, as commissioner of the SEZ Sardinia he has signed various protocols with the banks. What happens now?
«I hope that all the protocols, including those signed between the credit institutions and the Sardinia SEZ, will not be lost, given the forthcoming suppression of the regional bodies».
Is canceling the Sardinia SEZ a new centralism?
«Emptying the regions of all power is new centralism. A few small changes to the text of the reform would have been sufficient. The single national commissioner is fine instead of the eight regional ones, but the territorial garrisons needed to be preserved."
Did you talk about it with Fitto?
"No, I didn't have the chance to do that."
With the representatives of the Region?
"Yes. Both with those of the center-right and the center-left."
What did they answer?
«Everyone agreed that the territorial structure of the SEZ is a guarantee of efficiency».
Have the Sardinian parliamentarians moved?
"Yes. Both the Forza Italia deputy, Ugo Cappellacci, and the PD deputy, Silvio Lai, presented amendments. But the Government rejected them."
Do you see further room for manoeuvre?
"Unfortunately not".
The text approved on Monday in the Chamber provides verbatim that the single SEZ will be "a governance system based on a single national structure, without prejudice to the role of local administrations in the valorisation and promotion of new investment opportunities". How do you see it?
«I sincerely hope that the Municipalities also have the time to fulfill this further commitment. But I'm not optimistic. All the practices of the single SEZ are destined to pass through the Single Presidency Office which will be established in the Presidency of the Council of Ministers. With a paradox: both the small aspiring ice cream maker from Foggia and a large foreign company with a million-dollar project will have to turn to the "Roman" Zes."
Let's take a concrete example: a foreign entrepreneur asks the national Zes for consultancy to create a logistics hub. But he has no idea where to do it. Who directs it?
«The technicians of the mission unit and the coordinator».
Based on what criteria?
«Without a criterion. But a lot of discretion."
For you who fear the new centralism, will parochialism matter again?
"I hope not".
As an accountant, you have been dealing with businesses for fifteen years. What have you discovered new in these fourteen months?
"If entrepreneurs are put in a position to invest in a context made up of certain rules, the economy runs."