Staikouras – Tax exemptions come through the collection of receipts

The announcement of incentives for the collection of receipts from a series of professions, which will count twice in the tax exemptions, was announced by the Minister of Finance, Christos Staikouras.

Speaking to public broacaster ERT1, he said that the specific measure will be taken in the near future, in the context of strengthening electronic transactions.

Transitional inflation

At the same time, the minister asked that inflationary expectations are not cultivated, pointing out that inflation may be around 3% in October (“higher than we expected”, he said) but the phenomenon seems temporary and in this direction should work and businesses.

He also noted that the phenomenon is international and exogenous and sharper than the initial estimates, however it seems temporary. He estimated that inflationary pressures will begin to decrease from the beginning of 2022 on almost all products, with the exception of energy where the de-escalation will be seen from the second quarter.

Return to normalcy

Mr. Staikouras also stated that the normalcy of  the economy has returned significantly and made special reference to the increase of household disposable incomes – mainly due to tax cuts – and to the simultaneous increase of their deposits in banks this year. He said that high prices “eat” a part of the disposable income, adding that “for this we try to cover the losses and to strengthen it more through targeted measures “.

Asked about additional aid measures, he replied that the cash amounts to about 39 billion euros and what was spent in the last two years due to the pandemic (about 40 billion euros) was drawn from international markets. He added, however, that the budget allocated for the fires (€ 500 million) and to cover part of the energy costs (€ 500 million) limit the possibilities for any other intervention. He clarified, however, that “what we said at the Thessaloniki International Fair is valid and will be reflected in the budget” and left open the possibility for next year, saying that “we will see what will be the effect of the best picture of 2021 (in terms of development ) in 2022 “.