Gov’t insists on offering handouts
Just a few days after the Eurogroup decision, the government is reverting to handout promises, as Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos told the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA-MPA) on Tuesday that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has asked him to submit a study next month on alternative options for tax exemptions.
Tsakalotos said next year’s 700-million-euro primary surplus overrun could be used for the reduction of the Single Property Tax (ENFIA) and for social benefits.
The study should identify the “pros and cons, how every euro could have the optimum result,” Tsakalotos said. Any decisions made in this direction will be reflected in the draft budget this October.
Yet despite Tsipras’s insistence, the European Commission made it clear in its latest compliance report that any handouts or exemptions will have to be agreed with Brussels first.
