SYRIZA: Immediate return of reduced VAT rates to the islands

The immediate return of the reduced VAT rates to the islands is requested in a joint announcement by the competent heads of Finance and Island Policy of SYRIZA on the occasion of the announcement of the Ministry of Finance on the proposal for a directive of the Council of Ministers of Europe on VAT rates.

Specifically in their announcement they state: First, the recent decision of Ecofin does not affect in any way the possibility that the Government has today to restore the reduced rates. On the contrary, Article 120 of Directive 2006/112 / EC already allows Greece to implement such policies. So let the Government stop hiding behind the time horizon of 2025. So we expect from the Ministry of Finance and the MPs of the SW of the Aegean, to put into practice the restoration of the reduced rates now. Otherwise, the celebrations are ashes in the eyes of the islanders and prove that there is too much political aristocracy and that political will is significantly lacking.

They then accuse the relevant Ministry of “continuing the tactics of outrageous lies and barren communication. The proposal of the Ecofin directive did not come suddenly and without a past, nor is it based on the diligent efforts of the present Government. We would not like to remind them how failed negotiations and misplaced applications, on their own days, shaped the previous Directives. “There are also the texts that protest the proposals of the then leadership of the Ministry of Finance, which laid the foundations for a comprehensive negotiation, at EU level, of the special rates”.

In closing, they argue that “especially now that businesses and islanders are being hit by the wave of precision and impact of the pandemic on tourism, the resumption of reduced VAT rates on the islands could be a major blow. Any setbacks or excuses will confirm that the ND in 2019 “played” with the needs of the islanders and snatched their vote “.

SOURCE: AMPE