“Cashback has a regressive character and is intended to direct resources towards the categories and areas of the country in better economic conditions”. Thus, explain sources from Palazzo Chigi, the prime minister, Mario Draghi, intervened in the Council of Ministers, explaining the basis of the suspension of the measure starting tomorrow 1 July.
The greatest concentration of alternative means to cash is registered among the inhabitants of the North and, more generally, of the large cities, with a householder under the age of 65, a medium-high income and a status other than that of a worker or unemployed. Although there are no specific data in this regard to date, it is presumable, according to the reasoning that the head of the Government has illustrated to the ministers, that these categories are the ones that derive the greatest benefits from cashback and related bonuses and super-bonuses.
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The measure, according to the Prime Minister, therefore risks accentuating the inequality between incomes, favoring the richest families and determining a multiplicative effect on GDP that is not sufficiently significant compared to the cost of the measure.
It does not incentivize those who already use the cards …
Furthermore – the same sources report regarding the content of the considerations made by Draghi – there is no objective evidence of the greater propensity to use electronic payments by members of the Program. Almost 73% of households already spend more than the ceiling envisaged by the provision through cards. Therefore, most could receive the maximum benefit even without stepping up their card use.
… and for low incomes the goal is unattainable
On the other hand, it is unlikely that those without cards or currently using them for an amount below the ceiling will actually be able to reach it, because most of them cannot spend those amounts. On average, the families of the poorest fifth should in fact increase their spending on cards by almost 40%, while the wealthiest ones by only 1%. This is indicative of the fact that the transactions that have reached the target for the disbursement of the reimbursement (50 transactions in the semester) represent only 50% of the total transactions recorded and that approximately 40% of the beneficiaries have in any case transactions such as to suggest that they are people already accustomed to the use of electronic money.
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