And it became a food pass

By Chrysostomos Tsoufis

The government takes €650 million from the extraordinary taxation of the super profits of the refineries and turns it into a six-month food pass for 85% of Greek households. This is largely the emergency measure announced by the Prime Minister from the floor of Parliament fully confirming what we had written on skai.gr for a measure to be implemented in 2023 aimed at alleviating shelf precision and funded by refinery tax revenues.

The government therefore chose from February to July 2023 to finance 10% of the purchases made by households in supermarkets, and other businesses active in the retail food trade such as bakeries, minimarkets, fruit shops, butchers, fish shops, dairy shops and pastry shops. 10% is not accidental, but it is at the level at which it is estimated that inflation will end this year.

The Ministry of Finance takes as a calculation basis a purchase limit of €220/month for a single-member household, which increases by €100/member up to the amount of €1000 for a couple with 7 dependent children. 10% will be calculated on these amounts and will be paid for 6 months. Based on these e.g. :

• A couple with 1 dependent child will receive 10% of €420, i.e. €42/month or €252 for the semester.
• A couple with 2 dependent children will receive 10% €520, i.e. €52/month or €312 for the semester.

Under the fuel pass model, the money will be credited monthly to a digital debit card that can be used exclusively at food retail outlets. As with the fuel pass, so also with the food pass, there will be the possibility of crediting the money to a bank account, but not all of it but 80%, and not every month but with 2 payments per quarter. That is, a single-parent household that chooses money in the bank will not receive €22 every month for six months, and therefore €132, but €53 every quarter, a total of €106

Beneficiaries are households whose annual total family income is up to €16,000 for a single-member household and €24,000 for married couples or parties to a cohabitation agreement, which is increased by €5,000 for each child or guest member of the household. The asset limit amounts to €250,000 for a single-member household and €400,000 for married couples or parties to a cohabitation agreement and single-parent families.

It is estimated that the measure will benefit approximately 3.2 million households (approximately those in fuel pass 2) with 8.5 million members. The measure will be further specified by the leadership of the Ministry of Finance at the beginning of the week.

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