His amendment on “godfather’s basket” was presented to the Parliament by the Minister of Development Kostas Skrekas stressing that “the government will continue to take measures to fight food inflation”.
Elaborating on his amendment to the discussed bill entitled “Tax Procedure Code”, Mr. Skrekas said that businesses with a turnover of more than one million euros (mandatory) and all toy stores (optional) will submit a list of products “that will give the godparents the opportunity to buy at affordable prices the necessary products, which make our children happy on Easter days”.
As he said, the operation of this basket starts from April 22 to May 4and includes 12 product categories.
The “Godfathers Basket” includes the following products:
- Easter candles – toys
- Board / Puzzle
- Doll toys, dollhouses and other accessories (pretend play)
- Baby toys
- Action figures
- Construction and building games (eg brick games)
- Vehicles – Remote Controlled
- Electronic games
- Sports toys (eg balls, children’s basketballs and goals)
- A soft toy
- Musical toys
- Chocolate eggs and similar products (optional).
It is recalled that from April 24 2024 up to and including May 4th 2024 enters into force on “Easter basket“, while until May 4 consumers will also find the “Lent basket».
The Ministry of Development notes that the “Easter Basket” is an extension of the “Household Basket”, as four new food categories are added, in order to be an additional outlet for consumers.
The “Easter Basket” includes the following products:
- Lamb
- Kid
- Greek sweet bread
- Easter chocolate eggs and related products
Upgrade of the e-consumer
Asked about the reasons for not being posted in the last two weeks for household basket data on “e-consumer”, Mr. Skrekas said that it is currently in the process of being upgraded, being renewed and becoming much friendlier.
He said 3,000 products will be added, the prices of which will be updated daily, so that households have a price comparison tool, put together their own basket, and see which supermarket will find these products cheaper.
He underlined that this is one of the measures taken by the government that contribute to reducing, for example, food inflation which fell from 8.3% in January to 5.2% in the last month. In particular for personal care products, hygiene, baby diapers and baby milk, he said that the inflation in these products decreased, this March compared to last year.
“We have deflation in the prices of these products compared to last year. In other words, we have a reduction, on average, of prices of 2-2.5% in these categories” said Mr. Skrekas.
PASOK: “Rally of revaluations and the government is a spectator”
In his intervention, PaSoK MP Michalis Katrinis said that consumers do not experience what the government says.
We have a rally in price appreciation and the government is acting as a spectator, said Mr. Katrinis, according to whom, the prices of detergents and cleaners have indeed decreased by up to 2.7%, but since these are sold up to 350% more expensive than other European countries.
At the same time, he called on the government to reduce the VAT on basic food items, as – as he said – the president of the supermarket owners also says that if you reduce the VAT on basic food items, this reduction will immediately go into the consumer’s pocket.
“But you don’t do it, because you seek to support public revenues” (through the increased VAT) said Mr. Katrinis. Finally, Mr. Katrinis asked Mr. Skrekas to comment on a publication that brought a well-known commercial company pushing for the implementation of the godfather’s basket.
The example of Spain
To follow the example of Spain, which reduced indirect taxes on food, invited the minister and SYRIZA MP, Nikos Pappas: “It is at the foundation of your philosophy to let indirect taxes fall on the heads of small businesses and households, the which is the opposite of our own proposals to combat accuracy,” said Mr. Pappas.
As he said, SYRIZA proposes to use a part of the surplus profits recorded in the previous period to decompress indirect taxes and enable consumers to have better prices on the shelf.
Responding, Mr. Skrekas said that the government sees the pressure that inflation is putting on households, and despite the reduction observed due to the measures it is taking, it will not stop its effort.
“We will never be satisfied when there is a household that reaches the end of the month and is struggling to get the necessities. That’s why we continue, both with the checks and with the baskets,” said Mr. Skrekas.
Specifically for the publication cited by Mr. Katrinis, the Minister of Development said: Didn’t we have a godparents’ basket last year at Christmas and Easter? Don’t we have a basket every Wednesday? We didn’t have a basket for the Christmas table and now for the Easter table, which will have lamb, goat etc? [..] Coming to create an impression with newspaper reports and rumours? At the same time he said that “I am impressed that your point of view is identical with the point of view of the supermarket owners, in order to reduce the VAT.
Do you know what happened in Spain? [..] In the first month, half of the VAT reduction was absorbed by the intermediaries. And in the second month, all the VAT reduction was absorbed by the middlemen. That is, it went into the middlemen’s pockets. This was achieved by Spain, which, cumulatively in the last five years, has a 10% higher food inflation than Greece”, stressed Mr. Skrekas.
Source: RES-MPE
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