Gov’t in search of fiscal leeway

Finance Minister Christos Staikouras said that his ministry is “seeking to allocate fiscal leeway for new support measures to be taken in July,” speaking to Open TV station on Saturday.

By June’s end, he added, “we will know whether we can do more against rising fuel prices,” but he noted that not much can be done about reducing the unified tax on fuel.

If “we were to reduce this tax by 20 cents of a euro,” he said, “the overall cost for the state would reach 20 billion euros.”

The “available fiscal space has so far been spent on reducing the property tax (ENFIA) and costs in electricity bills for households.”

On reducing the solidarity levy, Staikouras noted that this has been fixed to take effect for private sector workers in 2023 at a cost of €450 million, but that “additional fiscal space is being sought to implement this in the civil service too.”