Parliament ratifies new taxation bill
The government’s new taxation bill was passed by a majority vote in parliament on Friday evening, with partial approval by SYRIZA on specific clauses.
The bill will bring tax cuts totalling up to 1.2 billion euros for businesses and households.
Ruling party New Democracy and far-right opposition party Greek Solution voted in favor of the bill, in principle, while main opposition SYRIZA, center-left Movement For Change (KINAL), the Communist Party (KKE) and MeRA25 voted against it, in principle.
On the other hand, SYRIZA voted in favor of 26 clauses of the bill, against 21 clauses and "present" in 20 clauses.
"We didn't solve all the country's problems with this bill," mused Finance Minister Christos Staikouras, noting however that all households "will see tax reductions."
Concerning the unified property tax (ENFIA), Staikouras said that lower incomes will see a 23 pct cut, middle incomes will pay 16 pct less and higher incomes will see a 7 pct reduction.
The minister said the government's goal is to reduce primary surpluses by increasing growth ,leveraging profit returns accrued from Greek bonds (ANFA and SMP) held by European central banks, and with the repayment of the most expensive part of Greece's loan to the International Monetary Fund.
