Monti seeks austerity plan confidence vote

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti plans to push his austerity plan through parliament with confidence votes to avoid a deeper potential crisis, observers said. The lower chamber was to vote on the package Thursday, with final approval expected to come with a vote in the upper chamber Friday, Italy's ANSA news agency reported. By submitting the austerity measures to confidence votes, Monti hopes to dissuade members of parliament from dissenting and ensure quick approval, otherwise the government would be forced to step down and possibly plunge the country deeper into its economic crisis, observers said. Italy already is at the center of the eurozone debt crisis and is paying high yields to service a national debt that's about 120 percent of its gross domestic product. Monti's package has taken heavy criticism, ANSA said. Two Northern League lawmakers were expelled from the House floor Thursday and the session was suspended after protests. The day before, the Senate speaker suspended a session after Northern League lawmakers jeered Monti during an address and held banners that read, "No More Taxes" and "This is not a budget, It's a Robbery." Among the package's components are measures that would provide a discount for large families as part of a property tax plan, index lower pensions in line with inflation, enact a 15 percent tax on higher pensions, increase the value-added tax from 21 percent to 23 percent in the top tier, raise the retirement ages for men and women, and increase the minimum number of years of pension contributions needed to retire before the retirement age.