canceled 2,000 laws of the 1800s (from the tax on must to the gabelle for Municipalities) – Corriere.it

The government canceled 2,535 royal decrees dating back to the decade 1861-1870. The “anti-bureaucracy operation” was launched by Maria Elisabetta Casellati, Minister for Reforms and Simplification, who during the last Council of Ministers had a provision approved which provides for a clean sweep of over 2,000 laws now out of time. But this battle for simplification is very complicated, because there are still over 30,000 Royal Decrees.

Among the canceled regulations dating back to the Unification of Italy, there are some curious ones, such as “the authorization to the Municipalities to collect the duties of gabelle for a three-year period”. Or “the sum that the students who enter the girls’ college in Milan must pay”. And there are also some “taxes in favor of cities and municipalities on wine and vinegar, on must, on grapes”.

These norms «although having exhausted their effects, are still present in our order by generating interpretative difficulties and disputes that engulf the courts – explains Casellati -. We are only at the first stage of that simplification process which, together with the government, I intend to pursue to make life easier for citizens and make Italy a more modern and competitive country”. The minister then adds that “By July a further 20,000 Royal Decrees will be repealed”.