On the issue of taxation of excess profits, his spokesman was appointed – among others PASOK, D. Manzos in a radio interview where he talked about “a methodical attempt to distort certain statements in order to draw certain conclusions that are incorrect“, specifying that” has never been said, for example, by the word “supermarket”, we decided to emphasize two sectors: banks with excessive profits as a result of the “opening” of the deposit and lending rates and electricity generation and distribution companies that received sky-high profits from for the crisis.”

Noting that any measure to tax excess profits is by its nature extraordinary, he explained that “the idea for banks does not come from Greece, but from other European countries such as Spain. This is a fiscal measure, fully permitted by broader EU legislation. In no case should it reach 90%, which Mr. Mitsotakis invests in energy distribution companies. Emergency taxation in the rest of European countries also has a much lower rate.”

A spokesman for PASOK-Movement for Change recalled, speaking on Radio Real, that “Mr. Mitsotakis himself decided a year ago to tax the additional profits of energy production and distribution companies at a rate of 90%. And then we all agreed, because we were the first to propose calculating superprofitswhen Mr. Mitsotakis and Mr. Skrekas said they didn’t exist. And then they went out to celebrate that they had gone to the maximum possible rate of 90%.

The error was not in speed, but in the tax base. There are two tricks there. The first has to do with who is being taxed, and the second is with the amount that is being taxed. Only producers were taxed, with a long delay of months, refineries also with a long delay and after there was a European prompt and pressure in this direction, but suppliers – where we are talking about an excess of 1 billion euros – were never taxed. Because the former Minister of Energy Mr. Skrekas never signed the necessary ministerial decision.

I remind you that last year in May 2022 The RAE submitted an opinion to Parliament, stating that the excess profits of manufacturers amounted to 900 million euros.. In September 2022, when the Ministry of Finance tripled this amount, taxed and raised 370 million euros.

That is, with an accounting trick, today, despite the fact that we are reaching a very high rate of 90%, we collect less than we should have collected even with a lower rate.

For differences from SYRIZA, Dimitris Manzos mentioned “a difference that was evident this week. SYRIZA has many times in the past been forced to retreat from its Agharbian positions. When we received this concerted attack from the ND on our program, we did not waste a single minute. Because we believe in our program. We strongly believe that the measures for the few we have proposed regarding dividends, the reduction of tax-free parental benefits, which currently stands at 4.8 million euros, and the taxation of excess profits for companies that I mentioned above, are necessary measures. .

And these measures are discussed disproportionately in relation to our other proposals, which relate to the welfare state and the redirection of the funds of the Recovery Fund in favor of the National Social Security System, in favor of public education, in favor of renewable energy sources. “.

At the same time, he stood for three elements of the PASOK-Movement for Change tax policy: “Reducing the tax on wage labor, which has the highest rate in Europe, increasing the tax-free child allowance – at the moment, either you have children or you are not, you pay the same, and we boast that we are also pursuing a demographic policy – and the third and most important of all – the reduction of indirect taxation.

D. Manzos even pointed out that: “In its program in 2019, the ND spoke about the need to reduce indirect taxes before the crisis of high accuracy “exploded”.. This is the measure they also wanted. But when the time came, instead of realizing it, as was socially necessary, they endured high rates for so many years in order to finance the pass policy and the dependence of citizens on a supposedly philanthropic state.

We tell them about it OECD, European Commission, Eurostatthey laugh and try to deconstruct us. Now we tell them: leave the OECD and Eurostat, look at yourself. The ND itself, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said in 2019 that it would cut indirect taxes, but this did not happen. It’s a monument to insecurity.”

Then asked Regarding Akis Skertsov’s view that horizontal VAT cuts benefit the wealthy, Mr. Manzos called it “economically and socially wrong.”because we all pay 24% regardless of financial capacity. When a government fails to create a proper tax system, it resorts to indirect taxes to finance its needs. It’s a crooked model.”

He did not fail to mention one more Mr. Shchertsov’s argument: “Once, when we were having a debate, I asked him to tell me about the problem of indirect taxation, and he replied:” But if we reduce horizontally, the intermediaries will win.

But the fact that the state cannot control the market chain and where VAT is lost cannot be reduced by the government to a reason for its indifference. The government cannot give up and say: “Oh, I can’t control the VAT and where it went, I’m sorry, I can’t reduce it.” And at the same time, Spain is extending the VAT cut, it has reduced offshore inflation, and Cyprus and Portugal are doing something similar.”

Source: RES-IPE

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