The assurance that the Ministry of Finance and the Government have "a positive approach" towards listening to documented suggestions for tax reform without key pillars of the reform structure being dismantled so as not to ruin it has been expressed by Finance Minister Makis Keravnos.
He was speaking before the House Finance Committee which pmon 8 December continued the discussion of the package of bills for tax reform .
At the same time, the Minister of Finance said that tomorrow (Tuesday, 9 December) he will submit amendments to the tax reform bills.
"There remain some basic principles and elements that are related to the resilience of our economy and to the basic principle that a key objective of tax reform is to regulate the tax burden in a fairer manner, a fairer distribution," Keravnos said in his initial statement before the Committee, noting that tax reform is an important issue for the economy and society.
"There are some key pillars in the tax reform structure that cannot be dismantled" because it would ruin the entire stucture, he added.
The Minister of Finance said that tax reform is not a social policy proposal and added that "within the context of tax reform, it is not essential to discuss an increase in benefits and grants because in such a case we could increase the benefits that are already provided through the social policy pursued by the Government."
He noted that there is a Deputy Ministry of Social Welfare with a budget of €870 million for benefits and other things.
The Finance Minister also said that "since a key element of tax reform is the fairer distribution of income, conditions related to social policy automatically come into play."
"At the Finance Ministry, we are prepared to listen with great attention and respond in good faith, provided that the basic building block of tax reform remains as designed," he stressed.
He also stated that he is following the Committee's recommendations, observations and criticisms with "very close attention" and feels that "there are proposals for directions that we can look at and find a solution for some issues that concern the Parliament and wider society."
Regarding the taxation of the business activities of provident funds, which was raised by several MPs, Keravnos said that there is a letter dated 2 December from the Office of the Commissioner for State Aid Control to the Commission which "we must analyse with great care" by both the Commission and the Ministry of Finance.
"The opinion we have from the Commissioner is that this constitutes state aid," he underlined.
(Source: InBusinessNews)
