FinMin – Package of measures for the relief of households and businesses

A new constellation of interventions for the relief of households and businesses from the skyrocketing of energy costs and the consequent price increases was announced by the Minister of Finance, Christos Staikouras, speaking to SKAI channel.

As he admitted, there is a serious problem with the cost of energy globally and it is even more acute than the initial estimates, however he noted that it is temporary and the second quarter of 2022 will begin to de-escalate. In fact, he did not rule out the possibility that inflation in December would exceed 5%.

“The Greek state must find ways to increase its aid to citizens in the near future. We are trying to see in cooperation with the Ministry of Environment what next moves we will make in December and 2022 to cover the problem of energy costs even more. When the situation escalates, we need to change goals and help more. We are planning a network of interventions to help comprehensive and coherent households and businesses for the twin crises they are facing”, said Mr. Staikouras.

Regarding the budget, the debate on which begins in Parliament today, he noted that there will be no changes. “This does not mean that the economy does not have a dynamic. This does not mean that depending on how the crises develop, because there are crises and even twin crises – both in the field of health with mutations and in the field of energy – there are no needs for interventions and so we undertake them and will continue to do so where necessary “, he underscored.

As he mentioned, although the budget closes based on the plan, one can not be satisfied when the primary deficit is of the order of 7%. The Minister of Finance explained that “we had to help society and we did the right thing, but the country’s expenditures are increased in relation to revenues by about 13 billion euros. This is because as a state we had to support households and businesses for the health crisis with 43.4 billion euros in three years, we had to support them for fires with over 0.5 billion euros in the summer and to date we have supported households again and companies for the energy crisis with over 1.1 billion euros “.

Asked if new austerity measures would be needed to cover the deficit, he said categorically not that as the economy gradually recovers, support measures are withdrawn and a strong recovery is recorded, revenues can be increased and adjustments made without austerity measures, but by maintaining permanent reductions in taxes and insurance contributions.

“The budget includes the reductions we have already announced, such as the permanent interventions, for example the reduction of ENFIA property tax by 22% and we have put a reduction of 60 million euros in 2022. We will see to which households this will go in January. We have a further reduction in corporate taxation to 22% from the 29% we received, reduced insurance contributions by 4% and permanent reductions in tax advances and the reduction in corporate taxation from 22% to 9% applies to the lowest income brackets,” added Mr. Staikouras.

He concluded that depending on the fiscal space, from 2023 onwards, the government will use it for further reductions in taxes and insurance contributions and the exercise of a proper rational social policy in critical areas, such as health.