Indirect taxes worth 1.8 billion euro, Value Added Tax hike from 23% to 24%, red loans regulations, a new Super Privatization Fund, new calculation scales for Unified Property Tax (ENFIA), the omnibus bill of some 4,000 pages has been submitted to the Parliament on Wednesday night. The voting will take place on Sunday night.
Some of the indirect taxes will be implemented as of 1. June others as of 1. July 2017, while the VAT hike will be imposed as of 1. July 2016. The hikes will expose Greek life to an everything-sweeping tsunami independent of available income and possibilities.
The VAT hike will affect prices for transport tickets, thousands of food items, all consumption goods, all kinds of services. They will go up for a second time in less than 12 months.
Whoever cannot pay the new prices can lay down and die. Or cut his telephone subscription as a 5% additional charge – TAX- will be imposed to all landlines with accession to voicemail and or internet. The special tax will be imposed as on 1. July 2016.
Of course, one could try his fortune in gambling to make ends meet, but then again… the tax on gains will rise and thus retrospective as of 1. January 2016.
The new measures will be implemented slowly between 1. June 2016 and 1. January 2017 so that the impoverished Greeks will not starve all at once.
The new taxes on coffee and cigarettes and beer will come up next year.
However, a 6 cent extra tax per liter of heating oil will be imposed as of 15. October this year, exactly when the heating oil purchase period begins.
No increase of any tax in Natural gas for household consumption, thought, and even the Special Consumption Tax on natural gas for the production of power will be scrapped.
Changes are in the Unified Property Tax (ENFIA) and it seems that properties owned by “legal entities” will pay more than households. The same will do owners of properties worth more than 2 million euro. There is an ENFIA for land plots however also lower payments for properties of low objective value. The full list of ENFIA based on objective values zones etc has not been published yet but more details in Greek are here.
Red Loans & Green Loans: the bill provides protection from sale to foreign funds only to red mortgage loans or mortgage loans for first residence objective value of up to €140,000 and to those loans guaranteed by the Greek State. The bill provides also sale of “green” (performing loans) as well as the activity of loan companies from third countries.
The bill contains also the famous clause for the sale of non-prescription drugs in super markets, and not exclusively in pharmacies. Every government since 2010 has been trying to implement this OECD tool kit, but in vain. Now the roulette ball sits on SYRIZA.
Of course, SYRIZA officials desperately try to justify the new measures and some MP claimed that the total extra charge will be about 13 euro per household per month. I suppose, they sat down and estimated how many cigarettes a Greek smokes per day, then added the small extra tax on coffee, phone bills and on beer and nicely omitted the VAT hike and the fuel taxes and the rest.
Are you kidding me? Because when I check my weekly supermarket bill and phone bill I come up with en extra of 15 euro and I calculated not the cigarettes or other extras. But I suppose as all other MPs, also the SYRIZA lawmakers live far away from supermarkets.
BTW: My euro-printing machine at home went on indefinite strike claiming it cannot cope with the required volume. I am sure it is a challenge for a left-wing government to try to persuade the justification of measures
NOTE: usually the bills submitted for legislation undergo last minute modifications. So I wouldn’t be so sure if no new taxes, fees, or a special whatever will not be added in the bill, even though I see no space in the air that I breath for one more tax.
The updated list of the new indirect taxes with the modified implementation dates is here.
PS let’s enjoy summer as another icy cold winter is coming…
