With different approaches from the ND than those of the Opposition parties, the debate on the Authority of the measures of the draft law on “Tax reform for the demographic and the middle class – Support measures for society and the economy» which began in the Economic Affairs Committee.

ND rapporteur Manos Konsolas he asked the opposition parties to vote in favor of the bill, saying that it includes the very important measures to support Greek society, which do not include small-party rhetoric of toxicity”. We have not said “just a tax bill, but a package of measures concerning aspects of supporting the social life of citizens and our economy”. The Government said “it does not trade in hope and does not participate in the tug-of-war of toxicity caused by some political actors inside and outside the national delegation”. There are, he said, “measurable results of the implementation of the Government’s economic policy that turn into tax reductions, income support measures, substantial policies to support and improve the lives of the middle class, for young people primarily, but also for the Greek family in general”. These measures for 2026 alone have a budgetary cost of 1.76 billion euros, the ND rapporteur underlined and added that “some people cannot promise everything to everyone, announcing measures that are not costed, as if nothing has changed”. In this bill, argued Mr. Konsolas, “all the measures and interventions announced by the Prime Minister at the TIF have been incorporated and include tax reductions, tax reliefs for the Greek family, support measures for the middle class and young people, regulations aimed at increasing and strengthening incomes. The rapporteur of the majority, addressing the Opposition MPs, said that “I appreciate that it is very difficult to refuse a positive vote on this bill”. Analyzing the provisions of the bill, Mr. Konsolas pointed out that the scope of these measures includes 4 million taxpayers and the targeting of the bill with an unmistakable social sign, confirms, once again, that the N.D. is still and remains the only reliable political governing force in the country and our opponent is the real problems of the Greek citizens”.

PASOK’s rapporteur Paris Koukoulopoulos he said that the support of the society, the demographic problem and the development of the Region are not solved by allowances and auspicious measures, but require serious policies. The Government said for 6 years it has had in its hands terrifying and unprecedented resources of billions from the community programs, but also from the recent fiscal space created to make an energy and effective policy, but in the end it could not face any structural problem”. Mr. Koukoulopoulos underlined that the structural problems are not dealt with by some superficial economic measures”. The Government stated “it has excelled in the benefit policy, but not in the serious and organized treatment of structural problems”. The PASOK MP clarified that “I am not underestimating the positive measures, nor are we downgrading them, but we are telling you that they do not affect the great imbalance of indirect-direct taxation, from which a large part of injustice and inequality originates. Also, it does not touch the indexation of the tax scale” and noted that “there is a big contradiction on the one hand that the government takes measures to reduce VAT for the islands and at the same time stubbornly maintains that the reduction of VAT in the rest of Greece will have no effect”. Mr. Koukoulopoulos mentioned that PASOK’s TIF program covered four years and the proposals concern half the fiscal space that the country has at its disposal in a 4-year period” adding that it is possible to increase the fiscal space so that there can be the 13th and 14th salary, the EKAS, resources for Health and society.

The special buyer of SYRIZA Nikos Pappas for his part, he criticized the Government saying that “the fiscal space of 1.7 billion is a political choice, not a natural phenomenon” and noted that it avoids taking tax measures that are within the country’s discretion that could provide revenue to restore the 13th and 14th salary, reduce VAT, and increase Health costs”. Mr. Pappas emphasized that other European countries are using discretionary measures (DRM) to increase their fiscal space and support society. As an example, he mentioned that “Austria, Slovenia, the Netherlands, Italy, Latvia are proceeding with contributions to banks and energy companies. Here, instead of something like that, you choose the limited 1.7 billion and allocate it in a certain way.” The SYRIZA member of parliament argued, among other things, that from the measures “3.1 million citizens with an income of up to 10,000 euros are not relieved at all. Two million taxpayers with incomes between 10 and 20,000 euros have a benefit of up to 50 euros per month, while 70% of beneficiaries have a benefit of up to 20 euros per month.” He described it as contradictory for the Government to say that it is not increasing taxes “when VAT revenues increase from 17 billion in 2019 to 29 billion in 2026” and wondered “this is not a tax increase, what is it?”. Mr. Pappas, developing the proposals of SYRIZA, stated that “with a fair redistribution, the 13th and 14th salary can be financed, the VAT on food and medicine can be temporarily zeroed out, health spending can be increased and the excise duty on heating oil can be reduced”. Regarding housing, he underlined that “30% of the population spends more than 40% of their income on housing, 43% have overdue housing debts and 26% are forced to stay at the homes of relatives or friends”. As he noted “with 120 billion euros of public spending, NSRF and Recovery Fund, these should not be these results”.

The special buyer of the KKE Christos Tsokanis argued that with the tax bill “the government is shielding capital and fooling the people.” He said it is “another hypocritical bill, in the footsteps of the previous ones, with supposed tax benefits for the people”. He emphasized that the surpluses of the economy “go on the bloody backs of the people”, while, as he argued, “special tax privileges are granted to groups, shipowners, public land is granted for the profitability of construction groups and measures are taken to reduce costs for energy-intensive industries or by reducing taxation from 15% to 5% depending on the goals of listed companies on the Stock Exchange. He called “benefits-crumbs those given to relieve the people from the taxation they receive and punctuality”. We are talking, he said, “about meager tax reductions, from which the working-class family will not see a substantial difference in their income.” Among other things, Mr. Tsokanis also criticized the government for the fact, as he said, that it leaves the unjust indirect taxes that burden the people’s income daily. For the measures for the youth, but also for the exemption from presumptive taxation regarding new mothers, he basically said that these are inferior to the needs of these groups.

The expert buyer of the New Left Euclid Tsakalotos he commented that the Government with the measures of the TIF seems to have no narrative and simply “looks like an aristocrat who is interested in his colleagues and tries to have a life that is somewhat decent”. Before discussing tax reductions, said Mr. Tsakalotos, we should see what happens to real wages. He argued that the positive effects of the measures for low-wage earners are very small compared to high-wage earners, and this also emerges from the Draft Budget that you sent to the EU. If the MP even said that the evaluation of the measures should start from the admission that the inequality in Greece is already very great, then the measures you bring with your own calculations make the situation much worse. Mr. Tsakalotos said that the Opposition cannot accept that the perimeter of the fiscal space is 1.7 billion euros because this is obvious to you, after you have taken all the measures for 6 years for your own, with tax exemptions and reductions in dividend taxes. It is ridiculous, he said, and cunning of the government to ask us for proposals, we do not accept the ideological framework that you have. Your neoliberal narrative is so that the many are not left behind, said Mr. Tsakalotos, and “it has nothing to do with a modern liberal democracy.”

The specialist buyer of Hellenic Solution Stelios Fotopoulos he said that with this bill “there is no tax reform. There is a tax bill, which changes items in the scales. The fact that a scale is reduced by 2% is good, but it is not a tax reform, how do we do it now” Regarding the demographic measures, he said that “it is an issue that we will have to revisit from the ground up, revisit from the beginning”. He called for the immediate abolition of the presumptions in the self-employed because it forced many to close their books. The problem you created, Mr. Fotopoulos said, is “far greater than the benefit the Greek Government had, at the end of the day.”

The special buyer of Niki Andreas Vorrylas stated that “this bill brings individual regulations that, however, are piecemeal, ineffective and politically expedient and this is because it fails to see the big picture, the housing crisis that affects young people and families and the demographic collapse that is “eating” the foundations of our country”. This draft law, he said, “is not reformative unlike housing and demographics, the bill fails completely, because it does not offer any institutional solution, it does not contain any vision. Also, the real tax reform is absent, it does not have any provision for the taxation of capital gains and profits from transactions or cryptocurrencies” it simply includes fiscal regulations, salary measures for individual categories of employees and technical interventions. It does not answer the problems with politics with strategy and social planning according to the needs of the time” and in contrast he referred to the respective proposals of their party.

The special buyer of Plefsis Eleftherias Alexandros Kazamias he said that the tax relief measures will not address the central problem of the Greek social economy, which is the problem of punctuality. The €1.7 billion is a quarter of the restoration of society’s purchasing power relative to inflation. They are, in other words, very thin in relation to what a middle class or lower class household would have to have in their hands to reduce the damage caused by the accuracy, Mr. Kazamias argued that by exceeding the surplus target in 2025 they could cover the 13th and 14th salary of civil servants. The MP argued that the 1.7 billion euros of measures covered by this bill are from tax refunds and not income redistribution. He accused the government of having developed a tax collection policy machine, as he said, aggressive towards the citizens, a tax raid and you return less than what you get and keep the rest, because the primary surplus increases. Mr. Kazamias said these are alchemy and added that “your choice is to have sky-high primary surpluses, almost twice what the Prime Minister thought the economy should have.”