For «firm commitment on the part of the government of the New Democracy, to the exclusion of small and medium farmers from aid programs», they speak, with a question submitted on Thursday, 03/12/20 to the Ministers of Rural Development and Food and Finance the Sectoral Head of Rural Development of SY.RIZA-PS S. Arachovitis and An. Finance Minister of SY.RIZA-PS K. Papanatsiou and signed by 44 more MPs of SY.RIZA-PS.

In it, it asks «to include farmers under the special VAT scheme in the refundable aid programme from which they have been unjustifiably excluded.»

Read in detail:

After the very recent exclusion of many mainly oil producers from the crown aid, came for all small farmers in our country, which is the vast majority and belong to the category of farmers of special VAT scheme, the deprivation of liquidity from the refundable aid. This is yet another defiant exclusion, as if the small professional farmers of our country are not running up the costs of cultivation needs while at the same time being hit hard by the pandemic and the 2nd lockdown.

Therefore, when the South West Government excludes farmers under the special VAT scheme, even though they are farmers in their main occupation, and cannot secure liquidity from the programme to cover the costs of their cultivation needs, it in fact makes them even more vulnerable to the effects of the pandemic and puts their viability at even greater risk. Once again the government of the South-West is applying the Law of the Strong in its national policy choices and in its actions concerning the country's rural population. With these multiple examples of class politics, the majority of farmers should also be very concerned about the critical issues of the new CAP that concern them and the handling of the Southwestern government in the negotiations.

Below is the full text of the Question:

 Athens, 3 December 2020

QUESTION

To the Ministers

Rural Development and Food

Finance

Subject: «Exclusion of farmers under the special VAT regime from the refundable aid 4»

With the Joint Ministerial Decision GDOU282/17-11-2020 (Government Gazette 5081/B/17-11-2020) of the Ministers of Rural Development and Food and Finance, which amends GDOU281/13-11-2020, only farmers under the normal scheme and not those under the special VAT scheme are included in the fourth cycle of the Refundable Advance Payment programme, even though they are farmers in their main occupation. According to the announcement of 25/11 by the Ministry of Agriculture, this is in order to allow farmers to take advantage of the favourable conditions of the scheme to cover the costs of their cultivation needs in the current phase of dealing with the pandemic. The deadline for submitting declarations has been set for Monday 30 November 2020.

The special VAT scheme for farmers is a provision of Articles 295-305 of the VAT Directive 2006/112/EC and its transposition into national law was made in order to avoid disproportionate administrative and organisational problems (such as, for example, accounting organisation). To this end, farmers under the special VAT regime of Article 41 of the VAT Code are only exempted from the obligation to keep books and accounts for the sales of their products and to issue invoices, as these are issued by the purchasers, and for no reason whatsoever are they exempted from their professional status.

The special VAT scheme for farmers includes small farmers of our country who: a) in the previous tax year made to any person deliveries of agricultural products of their production and agricultural services of less than fifteen thousand euros (15,000 €) and b) received subsidies of a total value of less than five thousand euros (5,000 €). The above criteria are taken cumulatively, that is, both criteria must be met in order for these persons to be included in the special scheme.

Because this special scheme relates only to VAT and matters of an administrative and organisational nature and in no way relates to the agricultural professional status of farmers.

Because the costs of the cultivation needs in the current phase of the pandemic response of professional farmers under the special VAT scheme are not waived by the VAT scheme to which they belong.

Because farmers under the special VAT scheme cannot benefit from the favourable conditions of the scheme to cover their cultivation costs in the current phase of the pandemic response.

Because  the special scheme for farmers includes small farmers in our country, who are the most numerous category of farmers.

Because especially the small farmers of our country are the most vulnerable to the impact of the pandemic on their income and viability.

The Ministers are asked

1. How many farmers under the special VAT scheme of Article 41 of the VAT Code are exempt from the fourth cycle of the Refundable Advance Payment scheme and what percentage of the total number of professional farmers in our country are they?;
2. What are the reasons for the exclusion of farmers under the special VAT scheme of Article 41 of the VAT Code from the fourth cycle of the Refundable Advance Payment scheme and which of them could be addressed by the administration's actions?;
3. Because the exclusion of farmers farmers special VAT arrangements. is a choice which deprives the majority of farmers of the liquidity necessary to cover the costs of cultivation needs in the current phase of the pandemic response, do the Ministries concerned intend to correct this choice and include farmers under the special VAT scheme in the aid measures? ;
4. Will the farmers under the special VAT scheme eventually be included in this call subject to the change of conditions and the appropriate extension or do you intend to include them in a subsequent call which is necessary to be issued?

The Questioning Members of Parliament

Arachovitis Stavros

Papanatsiou Aikaterini

Avramakis Eleftherios

Agathopoulou Irini

Athanasios Athanasios (Nasos)

Alexiadis Tryfon

Anagnostopoulou Athanasia (Sia)

Avlonitis Alexandros - Christos

Vagena Anna

Vardakis Socrates

Vetta Kalliopi

Gara Anastasia (Natasha)

Gkiolas Ioannis

Dritsas Theodoros

Eleftheriadou Sultana (Tania)

Zabeck Hussein

Higoumenidis Nikolaos

Thrapsaniotis Emmanouil

Kalamatianos Dionysios

Karasarlidou Euphrosyne (Froso)

Kasimatis Nina

Kafantari Chara

Katsis Marios

Kokalis Vasileios

Lappas Spyridon

Malama Sunday

Markos Konstantinos

Meikopoulos Alexandros

Barkas Konstantinos

Bournous Ioannis

Moraitis Athanasios (Thanos)

Papailiou Georgios

Poulou Panagiou (Giota)

Ragousis Ioannis

Santorini Nektarios

Skouroliakos Panagiotis (Panos)

Christos Spirtzis

Syrmalenios Nikolaos

Olympia Teligioridou

Tzakri Theodora

Tzoufi Meropi

Triantafyllidis Alexandros

Famellos Socrates

Dimitrios Charitou

Alexander Haritsis (Alexis)

Psychogios Georgios