Gov’t takes aim at cash transactions
The government and the country’s central and commercial banks agreed on Wednesday on a strategic plan for the development of digital transactions and a drastic cut in cash transactions that will be drafted within 30 days.
The working group that is to draft the plan will include representatives from the office of Deputy Prime Minister Yiannis Dragasakis, the Finance Ministry, the Bank of Greece and the Hellenic Bank Association, a meeting involving all of the above decided yesterday.
The reduction of cash transactions is turning into an immediate priority, whose attainment is seen taking place both through the expansion of credit card use and via online transactions between tradesmen, which seem to have gone out of fashion again. It is common practice among traders to break payments down into amounts below 500 euros, or, in the case of regular taxpayers, below 1,000 euros, which are the minimum levels for compulsory electronic transactions respectively.
Yesterday’s meeting also discussed liquidity in the banking sector, banks’ contribution to combating tax evasion and the improvement in the process of collecting state revenues.
