An effective criminal law protection for state subsidies to companies

Jan Ericson (M)

Madam Speaker! The tax burden has now, under Moderate leadership, decreased to the lowest level since the beginning of the 1970s, i.e., in over 50 years. Some of these tax cuts were implemented during the eight years that the Moderates led the previous alliance government. Others have been implemented during the last three years with a new Moderate-led government. Moderate policy makes a difference.

At the same time, one can observe that we still have a high tax burden in Sweden compared to most other countries, and the Swedish people do not always feel that they get value for their tax money. In a way, it is a failing grade for the politics. With today's still high tax burden, we should be able to have both the world's best welfare and the world's safest and best-functioning country.

It is easy to forget that much in Sweden actually works really well. But it is also important not to turn a blind eye to the fact that we still have serious deficiencies in many areas. These deficiencies are not solved by simply raising taxes and pouring more money into operations that do not work.

Today's government has deliberately begun the renovation of Sweden – the police, the correctional services, the defense, the energy supply and the infrastructure are some examples. At the same time, we are reforming the school, the healthcare and the social services and tightening both the migration policy and the assistance. Some reforms save money, and other reforms require large supplements. It is then important to ensure that the money is used for the right things.

Parallel to all this, we are lowering taxes – partly because it is morally right that people get to keep more of their own money, and partly to get better momentum in the Swedish economy in the deep global recession.

A fundamental goal for today's Moderate-led government is to safeguard the tax money and thereby be able to lower and keep down the tax burden while simultaneously ensuring more money can go to what is important. It is about prioritizing the right things and stopping waste and unnecessary expenditures, and at the same time preventing fraud and over-exploitation of our benefit systems.

Just this, safeguarding the tax money, is well one of the most important things that I have worked for during my nearly 20 years as a member of the Swedish Riksdag.

Madam Speaker! Preventing fraud and over-exploitation of our benefit systems and subsidy systems is a central task for today's Moderate-led government. That is why we have taken a long series of measures regarding this within various policy areas.

The bribery law currently in force was introduced back in 2007 by the then Moderate-led government. But this law only applies to natural persons. Now we move forward with measures against various crimes linked to corporate support and state subsidies.

The Government assesses that state support, grants, and other compensations to companies and other legal entities need criminal law protection. According to the Government, these supports are subject to criminal attacks, and it is assessed that there is a risk of incorrect payments involving large amounts.

There are also indications that many incorrect payments are not detected or reported and that there is a large number of unreported cases. The Government therefore proposes that a subsidy crime law should be introduced and thus a unified regulatory framework to counter incorrect handling of state enterprise subsidies.

The matter we are to decide on today covers several new legal regulations. Among other things, the proposal means that a new crime is introduced called subsidy crime. This means that the person who provides incorrect information or who does not report changed conditions can be punished. At the same time, the penal provision on subsidy abuse – which is originally a law concerning EU support – is expanded. It is now expanded to also cover state enterprise support. This means that it will be punishable to use support funds for purposes other than those for which the support has been granted.

An authority that decides on support now also receives an obligation to inform the actor who pays out the support if inaccuracies are discovered or suspected. The obligation to notify shall also apply to regions when it concerns incorrect payments from the welfare system to companies. That such an obligation has not existed previously can be thought to be quite strange.

The Swedish Economic Crime Authority is the authority that shall handle cases regarding crimes against the Subventions Crime Act, and the legislative proposals are suggested to enter into force as early as at the turn of the year, on 1 January 2026.

Madam Speaker! As politicians, regardless of the level we are responsible for, we always have a responsibility to safeguard the tax revenues that we collect from the Swedish people. In all areas of society, we must safeguard efficiency and wise priorities and combat fraud, over-utilization, and misuse of tax revenues.

With the enormous sums we collect in taxes, errors and deficiencies will probably always occur – it is probably inevitable. But our absolute responsibility is to minimize this as much as possible. If that is not successful, the entire trust in our Swedish tax system will be undermined.

The new subsidy crime law will be another tool to safeguard every tax krona that we collect from the hard-working Swedish people. I am very pleased with this bill and therefore move for approval of the proposition.

(Applause)

The deliberation was hereby concluded.

(Decisions were made under § 16.)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)