Meloni’s new battle: Wants to increase the possibility of paying in cash – Defends its decision on Facebook

The Italian Prime Minister, Georgia Melonias part of her government’s latest economic measures, has announced that she wants to raise the threshold below which traders are not obliged to accept “electronic payments» by card, setting it at 60 euros.

at the same time, the government of Rome wants to increase the possibility of paying in cash, up to 5,000 euros. For the definitive adoption of the measure, however, the completion of a relevant dialogue with the European Commission is expected.

The specific intention of the new government in Rome has provoked a series of criticisms with the main argument being that this way increases tax evasion in the commercial sector.

With today’s video on Facebook, with which it addresses the citizens and called it “The Georgia Notes”the Italian Prime Minister wanted to defend her choice and underlined:

“The limit on cash payments creates a problem for our economy. We are in a European market, this limit only makes sense if it applies to everyone. In Europe there are many, different limits for the use of cash, but also countries that have not established it. Germany has no cash limit, and neither does Austria, which borders Italy. Anyone who has cash and wants to spend it, he prefers to do it in other countries».

According to the head of the Italian government, “in her country, the year in which it was recorded the smallest tax evasion was in 2010, when cash payments of up to 5,000 euros were allowed.”

“The more the cash limit increases, the less tax evasion is encouraged. If I cannot legally spend certain amounts, which I have for a thousand different reasons, I’ll tend to do it unannounced,” Georgia Meloni pointed out online.

Referring finally to card payments, she added: “Our government is considering not requiring merchants to accept electronic payments for small amounts from now on. Up to 60 euros we would not like the relevant obligation to apply. Thlet’s see how the dialogue with the European Commission ends but the obligation, for such small sums, greatly affects the merchants.’

It is recalled that until today in Italy the merchants are required to accept card payments, regardless of the amount, while the limit on the use of cash for payments has been set at 2,000 euros and, before the intervention of the Meloni government, it was decided to reduce it to 1,000 euros from January 1, 2023.