Market Pass: Greeks to get new installment and retroactive payment

A new round of market pass payments begins today Friday for the beneficiaries of the immaterial digital card, with the process being completed next Tuesday. The Ministry of Finance gave the “green light” for the crediting of the penultimate installment of 24 million euros to 645,000 beneficiaries of the program.

The remaining beneficiaries who had chosen to deposit money into a bank account have already received the full amount of the subsidy.

Beneficiaries who have not been paid to date due to an incorrect IBAN will also receive retrospective amounts of the aid.

These households had received an email to correct their IBAN details as their application had been approved but the payment could not be made.

High prices

High prices remain on food despite decelerating inflation, the extension of the market pass is expected to be on the new government’s table by the end of the year in order to make up for losses in household incomes and given that budget execution figures show that there is available fiscal space to finance the measure.

The question is whether the new market pass will be given to all current beneficiaries or there will be changes to the income criteria and it will be granted only to vulnerable households.

It is noted that the market pass payments started in February and are completed in July. Beneficiaries, who had chosen a deposit to their bank account, received at the beginning of May the last subsidy for the months of May, June and July. Those who preferred to deposit the allowance on the physical card will collect the last installment on July 3, while digital debit cards automatically expire on 8/31/2023 and it will not be possible to carry out transactions with them after this date.

Beneficiaries of the Market pass are natural persons, single, married, parties to a cohabitation agreement, separated, divorced or widowed, who are tax residents of Greece and meet the income and real estate value criteria provided by law.

The Market Pass immaterial digital card is used at POS owned by Super Markets, grocery stores, butchers, patisseries, dairies, bakeries and various food stores.

The amount of aid per household amounts to 10% of the monthly amount of purchases, which is set at 220 euros for a single-member household, increased by 100 euros for each additional member of the household with a maximum purchase limit of 1,000 euros.