PASOK leader Nikos Androulakis outlined the party’s plan for “comprehensive measures” on taxation, private debt, financing and business operating costs in an address to the first conference of the Craft Chambers of Athens, Thessaloniki and Piraeus.
He said PASOK would submit a comprehensive bill to parliament in the coming days, setting out measures to restructure private debt and provide meaningful support for small and medium-sized businesses.
After highlighting the problems and concerns small and medium-sized business owners face in their daily lives, the PASOK-Movement for Change leader said the government could not speak of strong growth when such a large part of the productive economy was struggling to meet its obligations.
He said his party was clear that “there can be no strong Greek economy without real support for small and medium-sized businesses. Nor can there be sustainable growth when opportunities and available resources are concentrated in the hands of a few”.
He accused the government of squandering the opportunity to build a different productive base by making use of about €85 billion in European funds, saying it had “deliberately chosen to direct most of the Recovery Fund’s resources to large businesses that already had access to the banking system”. As a result, “of the approximately 820,000 small and very small businesses, just 15,170 gained access to financing”, he said.
Mr Androulakis said the measures announced by the prime minister at the Thessaloniki International Fair fell short, noting: “He did not introduce a special business account protected from seizure, a measure with no fiscal cost. He kept the business levy in place for companies in Attica, where almost half of the country’s businesses are located. On advance tax payments, he limited the reduction to just five percentage points for sole proprietorships, while postponing a cut to 50% for legal entities over six years”.
He stressed that PASOK’s plan included “comprehensive measures” on taxation, private debt, financing and business operating costs, and outlined them.
On tax fairness, he reiterated his commitments to abolish presumptive taxation and return to taxation based on actual income, and to raise the VAT exemption threshold to €20,000, reducing the tax and administrative burden on thousands of small business owners.
He also pledged to abolish the business levy in full, with no geographical exemptions, and to cut advance tax payments to 50% over four years.
On private debt, he reaffirmed his party’s proposal for 120 instalments. Criticising the government’s own scheme, which “is limited to older debts and retains a high interest rate of 5.84%”, he said: “We propose a truly sustainable arrangement, with an interest rate of 3% and access for those who genuinely need it. The aim is not simply to get someone into an arrangement, but to ensure they can keep up with it and that the arrangement is sustainable”.
Alongside his proposal, he insisted on restoring “meaningful protection” for the primary residence, based on PASOK’s Law 3869/2010, with modern income and asset criteria.
He also proposed enshrining borrowers’ right of first refusal and option to buy their loan, subject to specific conditions; requiring creditors to submit a restructuring proposal through the out-of-court mechanism; and imposing strict penalties on funds and servicers that break the law. He also reiterated his commitment to introducing a business account protected from seizure, so that every business can secure the basic resources it needs to operate.
On financing, he set out PASOK’s commitments to:
- Create a strong Development Bank Group, comprising an upgraded Hellenic Development Bank and a National Wealth Fund for the country’s major strategic investments.
- Restore collective bargaining so that the minimum wage is set through an agreement between the social partners.
- Gradually reduce non-wage labour costs to support both workers and businesses.
On business operating costs and high prices, the PASOK leader said there could be no effective response to high prices without confronting oligopolies and cartel practices that distort competition. He said “statements about high prices and occasional gentlemen’s agreements are not enough”.
Instead, he said, the Competition Commission and the relevant enforcement agencies needed to be strengthened, with strict penalties for those who broke the rules. “A government free from dependencies can achieve this,” he added. He also reiterated PASOK’s proposal to establish an Ombudsman for small and medium-sized suppliers and traders.
On energy costs, he noted that the government had recently announced support measures for industry to address higher energy costs, adding that “reducing production costs is necessary, but support cannot be limited to large businesses”. He asked what was being done for small workshops, craft businesses and neighbourhood shops, and stressed that PASOK had submitted an amendment to parliament the previous week proposing a permanent mechanism for automatic cuts to the special consumption tax on fuel, modelled on Italy’s.
Concluding his address, Mr Androulakis said support for small and medium-sized businesses was vital to the future of the Greek economy. He also referred to his party’s “Producing in Greece” plan, which “mobilises the country’s productive forces across the board: in agri-food, manufacturing, crafts, new technologies and high value-added services”.
The PASOK leader pledged to build a new relationship of trust with the productive sector, “based not on promises and announcements, but on action”, adding that “in the Greece we envision, small and medium-sized businesses play a leading role”.