Kasselakis: “Let’s start from the head of the fish” with taxation

Stefanos Kasselakis gave the assurance that SYRIZA – Progressive Alliance will exert all possible political pressure, in order to ensure a fairer distribution of the Recovery Fund’s resources, at the meetings he held today at the General Confederation of Professional Craft Merchants of Greece (GSVEE) and the Athens Chamber of Commerce ( EEA).

The president of SYRIZA-PS informed the representatives of small and medium-sized enterprises and the self-employed about the new, favorable regulation proposal, which is formulated by the party regarding their overdue loan obligations. The party’s interventions against the tax raid promoted by the ND government against freelancers, under the guise of tackling tax evasion, were also discussed.

In the meeting with the president of GSEVEE, G. Kavvathas, as well as with the members of the Board of Directors of the Confederation, G. Kavvathas informed St. Kasselakis that out of the approximately 800,000 businesses, together with the self-employed, only 49.5 thousand can cross the threshold of the banks, a percentage of less than 5%.

At the same time, the average increase in production and operating costs has reached 40%, while overdue liabilities to AADE have increased by 10 billion euros in the last year. Also, the president of GSEVEE while the government regulation of 36 – 72 installments was not effective and overdue insurance liabilities increased by 660 million euros, only in the last six months.

He previously met with the president of the Athens Chamber of Commerce, Yiannis Hatzitheodosiou, and the members of the Board of Directors of the EEA, where he heard the concerns of freelancers about the new taxation.

In the short dialogue they had in front of the television cameras, Mr. Hadjitheodosiou mentioned that the situation is very difficult for small and medium-sized businesses and that the dominant issue at the moment is taxation, as it concerns 80% of the members of the EEA. He said that beyond that, the big issue is that of the Recovery Fund and the NSRF, as “only 3% of the Fund and 6.5% cannot reach SMEs”. He commented that there is a disharmony, as “one will get cheap money and the other will not, so in the economy it has a very important competitive advantage over the rest.”

Stefanos Kasselakis emphasized that he raised this issue with the Economy Commissioner P. Gentiloni during their meeting yesterday in Brussels. The president of SYRIZA PS, referring to the government, pointed out that only with political pressure will there be a reallocation of resources: “Who is the prime minister of the country? Doesn’t he decide?”

Mr. Hatjitheodosiou said that in our country 99% are SMEs and that the way the money will be allocated determines the image of the future, raising the question of whether SMEs will co-exist or we will have the dominance of five large chains.

Among other issues they raised during their introductory remarks, the EAA president commented that “it’s one thing to report a tax evader and another to pay the whistleblower.” “This looks like bounty hunters. I don’t know of another country that rewards whistleblowing, because tomorrow this could become a profession,” he commented.

For his part, pointing to the government, Stefanos Kasselakis noted that the best way to denounce something is to have a justice that works, that you don’t have to wait years to have a decision and that its awarding is not objective many times.

The president of SYRIZA PS talked about the immunities that exist for bankers, commenting that we should start reporting from there, from the “head of the fish”. In the same context, he referred to the question of where they are related, pointing out that he also raised it with the prime minister in their meeting, noting that we need to know exactly what debt arrangements the members of Parliament have. “Let’s start from the head of the fish”, he stressed, instead of punishing people who might want to stand on their own two feet, honest professionals…