“In 6-7 days the applications for the Market Pass will start”
“Maybe tomorrow or the day after tomorrow it will be announced when it will start Lenten basket with some additional items which will essentially be included in the basic basket” announced the Deputy Minister of Development and Investments Nikos Papathanasis.
As was done with the Christmas basket, fasting foods will now be added in order to keep prices low, “so that all our fellow citizens can buy the basics required for Lent”, noted Mr. Papathanasis.
He recalled that every Wednesday the basket is renewed, so a possible start date for the Lenten basket could be February 15, according to the deputy minister.
Regarding the legislative regulation for the household basket, which normally expires on March 31, Mr. Papathanasis noted that since the accuracy remains, the government must continue the support and as it was said from the beginning, heading towards the end of the measure, the corresponding decisions will be taken to grant the relevant extensions.
To the question, what does a family save by buying from the basket, Mr. Papathanasis, repeated that a family of four earns around 80 euros per month. Together with the shopping card, for which the applications start in the next few days and until March 3 the amounts will be paid, the Market Pass will give an amount which is 10% on consumer purchases. “For a family of four, this means 52 euros, and if the family itself uses the basket, it can have a benefit of 80 euros. We cannot 100% meet the accuracy. It would be a lie to say so, but we are doing everything, everything we can, in order to support the households”, emphasized Mr. Papathanasis.
In 6-7 days the applications for the Market Pass will startthe deputy minister said, and the way of submitting the application will be similar to the Fuel Pass.
“If we choose to credit the money to an IBAN account, we will have a 20% reduction, but three months will be paid together, that is, February, March, April in one payment on March 3 and it concerns 85% of our fellow citizens. This is what we want to do, to really support households and we have said that this 10% is better than the 7% proposed by SYRIZA as a VAT reduction” added Mr. Papathanasis. “Citizens can therefore choose either to pay the money to the IBAN account, otherwise on the immaterial card they must use it for purchases in supermarkets, fruit shops, grocery stores, butchers and also in street markets where traders and producers have a POS” he added the Deputy Minister of Development, noting that this specific measure will run for six months.
Food inflation is 15% according to official data, Mr. Papathanasis noted, underlining that this 15% is the third lowest in Europe.
The deputy minister, speaking on the First Program 91.6 and 105.8, also noted that the labeling of supermarket products is changing. He said since the cart was launched, corrective moves have been made with the marking, however it was noticed that the unit price is written in small letters. “What we are doing is that we are legislating so that there is in the same font, in the same size, the price of the product and the price per kilo. If, for example, we buy a slice of 300 grams, we will have the price of the product and next to it we will have the price per kilogram. This is done immediately. Little by little, all the supermarkets are harmonizing and of course we also carry out checks to see if the entire operation of the supermarkets has been harmonised. From Monday, all supermarkets will have to have the same prices” said Mr. Papathanasis.
Regarding discounts, it is now valid that the reference price from which the discount starts is the lowest price of the previous thirty days. And that’s where the controls start, according to Mr. Papathanasis, while he warned that the fines will be severe.
At the same time, Mr. Papathanasis added, the bill on “phishing” (electronic phishing attacks) is in the Parliament. “Until now, consumers were not protected. Now we set a limit of 1,000 euros and above. The banks should compensate, so we should also be consistent, be careful not to give the codes, there is no reason to ever give a code either from the phone, not from the laptop, not from the mobile. It will be voted on this week, early next week and there will be the relevant security valves from the banks to cover all this gap. Therefore, one more measure to protect consumers,” he said.
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