The Sweden Democrats presented on Wednesday a comprehensive campaign promise focused on Sweden’s sparsely populated and rural municipalities. Among other things, the party wants to abolish the general payroll tax for employers in 73 designated municipalities and at the same time write off student loans for people who work in the public sector and live there.

The proposal was presented by party leader Jimmie Åkesson during a visit to the Nolia fair in Piteå, where he described the initiative as a way to boost development in parts of the country that have long struggled to attract workers and investments.

“More resources should go to the countryside and sparsely populated areas,” said the SD leader during the press meeting.

According to the Sweden Democrats, the ambition is to make it more attractive both to run a business and to work in municipalities that have long battled depopulation and skills shortages.

That’s why the party wants to abolish the general payroll tax for all employers in the affected municipalities. At the same time, it is proposed that people with student loans who work in the public sector and choose to live or move to one of the municipalities will have one fifth of their student debt written off each year over a five-year period.

“We want to make things easier for companies through lower employer contributions. If you choose to work in a sparsely populated municipality, you should receive student loan write-offs to attract people to jobs in this part of the country,” Åkesson told SVT.

The party’s calculations show that around 49,000 people would be affected by the student loan write-off reform. The total student debt amounts, according to SD, to nearly seven billion kronor, which means a cost to the state of about 1.4 billion kronor per year.

The largest financial item in the proposal, however, is the scrapping of the general payroll tax. The fee, which currently amounts to 12.62 percent of gross salary and is paid by employers to the state, is estimated by the party to reduce state tax revenues by approximately 14.6 billion kronor annually.

Despite the hefty price tag, Åkesson argues that the reforms will pay for themselves through increased economic activity and better conditions for businesses and public operations in sparsely populated areas.

The proposals encompass a total of 73 municipalities. Of these, 58 are classified as sparsely populated rural municipalities and 15 as very sparsely populated rural municipalities.