High retail prices and increased international coffee prices have forced the Greek government to not only extend the cut in the value-added tax rate to 13%, but to make it permanent, Kathimerini newspaper reports.
At the same time, in order to support vulnerable households, the government has decided to impose a temporary solidarity levy of 33% on refineries based on excess profits from the previous tax year, from which it hopes to collect around 300 million euros.
Refinery surplus profits were also taxed last year, adding around €340 million to the state coffers.
According to the plans, the tax will be calculated on the basis of excess profits for the tax year 2023, as defined in the regulation - ie. 33% of taxable profits for 2023, which exceeds 20% of the average results for the years 2018 to 2021. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told Real FM: "I think this is a fair decision, because indeed our refineries made very high profits in compared to our historical revenues as a result of the changes made in the international oil market... And since we will hear different arguments from the opposition who said that we should impose a tax of 90%, we wanted a fair taxation of corporate profits as well . We don't confiscate business property and we don't punish healthy entrepreneurship."
Calculated on the basis of the excess profit for 2023, the tax of 33% will be established within 2024 and will be reflected in the declarations of the companies for that year.
Economy and Finance Minister Kostis Hadzidakis announced that the funds will be used mainly to support pensioners in December who, due to personal differences, do not benefit from the new increase in pensions from January 1, as well as to strengthen credits under the public investment program.
According to government sources, the majority of the amount will go to pensioners, the disabled and other vulnerable groups. The ministry is starting to do a survey to find out how many pensioners there are who will not have an increase in their pensions from January next year. I BGNES
