Staikouras in SKAI: 700 million will be paid to citizens by tomorrow – The goal of the next 4 years is to increase salaries

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Christos Staikouras left open the possibility of new interventions in favor of citizens. “If there is a fiscal space, it goes without saying that it will be returned to society as we have been doing until now” he clarified

By Wednesday evening, a total of 700 million euros will be paid to Greek citizens, the finance minister told SKAI and on the Today show Christos Staikouras, while tomorrow the provision for the taxation of refineries which allows the implementation of the market pass is also voted.

Christos Staikouras left open the possibility of new interventions in favor of citizens. “If a fiscal space arises, it goes without saying that it will be returned to society as we have been doing until now,” he clarified.

“Today and tomorrow, 2.4 million citizens will be credited with the emergency aid of 250 euros, the so-called precision check, this measure is 500 million euros. At the same time, 865,000 compatriots who applied for the heating oil allowance will tomorrow be credited with 190 million euros out of the 300 million total allowance – if they have declared an iban. I estimate that by tomorrow evening 700 million will have been credited to the citizen’s wallet for the difficult period ahead. At the same time, we have the extension of traffic fees for two months and the subsidy of heating oil with 15 minutes”, he said characteristically.

Market pass

In particular, as the minister said, the provision on the taxation of refineries is coming to Parliament today, and will be voted on tomorrow. “Even though Mr. Tsipras said on Saturday that we will not bring it until the elections… In the two articles (of the regulation), the first one is taxation,” stressed the finance minister.

“We estimate that taxing the refineries will bring in 650 million euros, which goes back to society as a whole. The measure (market pass) concerns 3.2 million of the 4.1 million households, i.e. 80% of society and the middle class. It concerns all the products from the categories we have developed, not only food, and the first payment will be made at the end of February and then at the beginning of each month,” said the minister.

Wages

In terms of wages, the Ministry of Finance reminded, we have doubled the minimum wage, now we have the 9th highest minimum wage in Europe, but we are not satisfied, and we are coming to do a third minimum wage increase. The goal of the next four years is to increase wages in the private and public sector, as the prime minister also said in Parliament, he underlined.

Banks: “Much more can be done”

Christos Staikouras expressed his satisfaction with the banks’ first moves in terms of loans, commissions and interest rates on deposits. “The banking system can take much more steps,” he clarified anyway.

Among other things, he emphasized that only the Greek and Spanish governments have significantly pressured the banking system to intervene for loans, strengthening the real economy and citizens, while last Thursday the banks pledged to reduce commissions and on Friday two banks, a systemic and one non-systemic, they did so, with a reduction from 20% to 50%, while there was also a commitment to increase the deposit rate and one is doing so from this week, while the out-of-court mechanism is also doing much better.

“We give 2.3% of GDP to support households – businesses”

“As a percentage of GDP, the debt will be around 160% in 2023, a 50% reduction in the last three years, the biggest reduction ever in Europe. This year due to growth we have a significant fiscal improvement, we have continuous external crises which we have dealt with better than other countries in Europe, but we do have very high inflation” explained Mr. Staikouras.

As the minister explained, “we are not celebrating that this month or the previous one we have one of the lowest inflation rates in Europe, because it remains high, it eats away at the citizen’s income and it is persistent, it will be with us in 2023 as well. It is not only treated with benefits, others with permanent reductions in taxes and social security contributions, we are the only country in Europe that in 2023, in the next few days, we have the abolition of the solidarity levy for all Greek citizens, we have the permanence of the reduction in social security contributions, and also support for citizens in greater need ».

“We give 2.3% of GDP to support households and businesses, when the European average is 1.3%. We cut taxes. Today citizens pay 1 billion less for ENFIA than in 2018. The abolition of the solidarity levy in 2023 costs the budget 1.24 billion euros, while we also reduce indirect taxes such as VAT on catering. Economic policy is not just a measure,” he added.

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