Card payments boost budget revenues
More than €550 million was collected last year due to a large increase in electronic transactions
The value of transactions with plastic money reached 62 billion euros in 2023, recording an increase of 15% compared to 2022, a rate that is expected to be maintained this year with a marginal slowdown, according to estimates by Mastercard, assessing the positive macroeconomic environment and, in particular, the universal mandatory introduction of point of sale devices (POS) in 35 new professional sectors imposed by the government, which will contribute to the 14% growth of the card market in 2024.
Data from the Foundation for Economic & Industrial Research (IOBE) show that plastic money accounts for 40% of consumer spending, reducing tax avoidance and increasing VAT receipts.
Panagiotis Polydoros, Mastercard’s country manager for Greece, Cyprus and Malta, stated that “card penetration is synonymous with reducing tax evasion, and additional card payments have generated an additional €600 million in tax revenue in 2023, reducing the VAT gap in the country.”
Polydoros maintained that Greece has made significant progress in recent years in the field of electronic payments and now ranks close to the average of European countries – 18th among the 27 eurozone countries in the use of debit and credit cards, up from 30th in 2015.
Since then, the growth rate of card transactions has constantly increased by 25% per year, and despite the slight fatigue noted in recent years, as a result of the penetration of plastic money, there is “still room to conquer 13th place.”
The forecast for GDP growth of 2.5% and private consumption growth of 1.4% confirms that there is room “for further penetration of electronic transactions,” Polydoros emphasized.
Moreover, following the universal mandatory supply of POS, “we are in a very closed club of countries worldwide, giving the consumer the option to pay by card or other electronic means and cash.”
It should be taken into account that of the €62 billion in card transactions, an estimated 15% of the total value came from the use of foreign bank-issued cards in Greece, highlighting the importance of tourism not only in card penetration but also in improving the customer experience.
This is why the mandated acceptance of cards in taxis is critical, as it increases the country’s tourist footprint for “travelers from abroad the moment they land in our country.”
