FinMin Staikouras at OT Forum: Property taxes in Greece lower in 2022 by a total of one billion€

An online platform for taxpayers in Greece to file annual returns will open by Thursday at the latest, Greek Finance Minister Christos Staikouras announced on Wednesday, speaking during the second day of the inaugural OT Forum at the old Athens Stock Exchange.

In response to questions by a pair of AlterMedia Group journalists, Staikouras said property taxes in the country his year will be lower by one billion euros, compared to what owners paid, in total, in 2018.

In addition, the minister said a supplementary state budget – announced a day earlier by PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis at the same OT Forum – will raise spending by two billion euros and will be tabled next week.

Staikouras said the extra spending will come from a 40-billion-euro cash reserve, instead of being tacked on to the budget deficit.

He also echoed Mitsotakis in saying that the government was considering a lower VAT rate on certain foodstuffs, nevertheless adding that a handful of conditions apply here, such as fiscal space, the course of the economy and a decent certainty that reductions will be felt in consumers’ pockets.

In other matters, Staikouras said Greece can go without accessing markets for its borrowing this year, although such forays are judged as beneficial.

The Greek state’s initial target was to drain 12 billion euros from markets in 2022, with three billion euros already borrowed.