For an agricultural income that is shrinking, as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and a government policy that affects small investors, says MP Stavros Arachovitis of Laconia.
This is a situation in which the ever-increasing cost of production, accompanied by restrictive measures in catering and tourism, create an explosive mixture, to which is now added the government's «Green Fee», which will be imposed in a form of a trench from the beginning of the new year.
Read the statement in detail:
«As if the repeated blows from the effects of the pandemic health crisis were not enough COVID-19 in rural income, on Friday 4 December a new, permanent tax on diesel was imposed. This is the so-called “Green End” on the price of diesel fuel introduced by an amendment tabled in the Parliament from Ministry of Energy and Environment and will be collected from 1/1/2021, with the «good morning» of the new year.
The price of oil keeps rising, dragging down production costs, transport, input and manufacturing industries. At the same time, almost all agricultural products are affected by restrictive measures on restaurants, tourism and travel.
In this context, the Government of the Southwest chose to impose a new hack on diesel, which will multiply the cost of production and the price of agricultural products to the consumer. Instead of discussing the implementation of permanent measures to reduce the very high production costs, such as the reimbursement of the E.F.K. of oil to farmers, the government, acting in the exact opposite direction, imposes another permanent tax. By way of example, the cost to the production of an agricultural holding that uses oil engines for transport, cultivation and irrigation can exceed EUR 500 per year.
And it is provocative that the new charge is not green at all, because its sole purpose is to cover the deficit in the RES account that Mr.Hatzidakis created, after receiving a surplus account from the Syriza government. And the “blow” to the rural world is backhanded and triple, since with the same amendment it also hits energy communities and small investors, throwing them out of licenses, and puts a 6% fee on those who already have a renewable energy project!
As stated by the President of the SYRIZA-P.S. Alexis Tsipras, during the discussion of the relevant bill of the Ministry of Environment to which the relevant amendment was submitted: «The country continues to be in the throes of a pandemic. And unfortunately, it has a government that is daily moving away from basic reality.».
