The Draft Budgetary Plan presented by the Italian authorities updated the no-policy-change plan submitted by the outgoing government in October 2022. The Opinion finds that, overall, Italy's updated DBP is in line with the Council Recommendations of July 2022: Italy has limited the growth of nationally financed primary current expenditure and it plans to finance public investment for the green and digital transitions, and for energy security. While Italy rapidly deployed measures in response to the increase in energy prices, it is important – as recommended to all Member States – that Italy increasingly focuses such measures on the most vulnerable households and exposed firms, to preserve incentives to reduce energy demand, and withdraws these measures as energy price pressures diminish. The Commission is also of the opinion that Italy has not yet made progress regarding the structural part of the fiscal recommendations contained in the Council Recommendations of July 2022. The structural recommendations required Italy to adopt and appropriately implement the enabling law on the tax reform to further reduce taxes on labour and increase the efficiency of the tax system. Moreover, Italy's updated DBP includes measures that are not consistent with the structural part of previous fiscal recommendations regarding pensions and tax evasion, including on the compulsory use of e-payments and the legal thresholds for cash payments.