After winning the majority’s support today in the relevant parliamentary committee, the bill from the Ministry of National Economy and Finance will be debated in Parliament’s plenary session tomorrow, Thursday 12 November. It is entitled “Boosting disposable income, saving and investment: tax, wage and pension provisions and other social policy measures”.
On the bill’s general principles, which include, among other things, a savings and investment account for children, a €500 Christmas allowance for civil servants, and tax relief for families with three children, farmers and self-employed professionals, New Democracy voted “yes” and the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) “no”, while the other parties reserved their positions for the plenary session.
The bill contains only positive measures, said Deputy Minister of National Economy and Finance Thanos Petralias, who is responsible for fiscal policy. The measures are worth €2.2 billion, and no other European country is having such a discussion about adopting positive measures, Mr Petralias observed. Responding to opposition criticism that public-sector employees should receive a full 13th month’s salary and pensioners a 13th pension, he said the total cost would reach €4.3 billion, at a time when Greece is bound by EU commitments under the net expenditure indicator. “We need to be extremely careful. Ten countries are already in the excessive deficit procedure and are taking countermeasures, and that number looks likely to rise. Clearly, if we breach the spending target, we will not be exempt. We should be clear about that. In other words, we would immediately be placed in the excessive deficit procedure. [. . .] These measures use up the spending limit. [. . .] If we start providing more on top of that, we create a risk. [. . .] And we are not going to take that risk. These are the maximum measures we can (take) within our limits,” he said.
Deputy Minister of National Economy and Finance D. Markopoulos, who is responsible for tax policy, spoke about the “Pierrakakis savings pot”, which revives the message of saving and investment in society. If a parent cannot put aside €1,200 a year for each child, they can contribute €400, €300 or €200, and the state will give them that amount back, Mr Markopoulos said, responding to criticism from the opposition.
He also urged the other parties to support the measures in the bill, “because if you do not vote for them, you will have us out in neighbourhoods across Greece”, where “you will have to explain [to citizens] why you did not vote for the €400 for pensioners, why you did not vote for the €500 for public-sector employees, why you did not vote for the reduction in advance tax payments, why you did not vote for accelerated depreciation for local industry, which needs it, and why you did not vote for the beneficial measures on presumptive taxation for self-employed professionals”.
Earlier, the majority’s rapporteur and New Democracy MP Maria Syregela said the government was offering not easy promises but workable solutions. The minority’s rapporteur and PASOK MP P. Koukoulopoulos said his party would vote for specific articles. On the “savings pot”, he said it widened inequalities because it had no income criteria or social safeguards.
KKE speaker Chr. Tsokanis said the government was giving back “crumbs” from what it had taken from workers and pensioners, “while you are spending billions to lay cables for the needs of energy groups and build the ‘Shield of Achilles’ to protect strategic investments”.
SYRIZA speaker Io. Karipidis said the government was reporting positive growth rates, but citizens were not seeing the benefits in their pockets: “The government celebrates surpluses while households are unable to save.” Speaking for Greek Solution, St. Fotopoulos said he was not against the “savings pot”, but opposed a measure that “gives nothing to anyone who cannot afford to save money for their child”.
Niki parliamentary group speaker A. Voryllas called for a “basic public contribution for children from low-income families” to be included in the “savings pot”. Finally, Course of Freedom speaker Al. Kazamias said that, while inflation was surging and tax revenues were rising, the government was giving back only “token sums”.
SOURCE: ANA