To new arrangements for the repayment of quarantine debts, the government is oriented to the fact that citizens are unable to meet their obligations.
But everything will be decided in the two months January- February, on how to deal with the economic consequences of the pandemic, as in addition to the model that will be applied to support specific sectors, decisions on coronary debts will also be «locked».
«We will have to evaluate the speed of repayment of the obligations to the State when the economy really gets going again and we see its dynamics», he said. Prime Minister in his interview with Alpha, thus reinforcing the feeling, if not the belief, that the already legislated 24 instalment scheme for the «frozen» pandemic debts will receive a major facelift.
As things stand today, tax and contribution suspensions until the end of the year will amount to around EUR 2 billion. To these, should be added the unpaid current obligations of the summer months, as well as the taxes - contributions, which had to be paid from September to December, which have NOT been suspended as was the case in the first quarantine.
And if one takes into account that even in the basic scenario of the Ministry of Finance, a gradual return to normality is not foreseen before April- hence the 7.5 billion for support measures in the 2021 Budget; it would be an oxymoron for the economic staff itself to demand simultaneous payment of current obligations and “frozen” taxes from May onwards.
Currently, the Treasury is keeping the bar of expectations low, noting that repayment over a two-year horizon (24 instalments) is a realistic expectation, once the virtuous circle of the economy has been opened. At the same time, however, it is gathering evidence and requests from “sensitive” sectors, showing that thousands of businesses will remain “intubated” for many months to come, in order to overcome the shock of the pandemic. In these business sectors, it should be expected intervention, with strict criteria of turnover (fall), so that there are no... grumbling from the Institutions.
At the same time, the announcements on the extension of the support measures during December show that the pattern of suspensions has changed. In November, it was announced that tax-levy instalments are not “frozen” until April, as was the case with the suspensions of previous months, but are transferred to the “queue” of these arrangements. This model was consolidated with the instalments of instalments due in December, as these are also transferred to the “queue” of instalments in order to avoid a black out in April.
