Greece’s chamber community on Wednesday commented the 2018 state budget was over-optimistic, but noted that if budget goals were to be achieved the country would be able to follow a development plan.
Constantinos Mihalos, president of the Union of Hellenic Chambers and the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry, noted: “The 2018 budget provision for a growth rate of 2.5 pct and a primary surplus of 3.82 pct of GDP is over-optimistic, as this budget also is based on over-taxation of enterprises and individuals that have exhausted their tax-paying ability. But if the goal is finally achieved, something we all wish for, then the country will have the ability to exit the memorandum path and to follow a national development plan based on attracting and creating productive investments”.
“It also creates a cautious optimism over a provision of privatisation proceeds worth 2.7 billion euros and a budget reference that Greece will tap capital markets again next year,” Mihalos stressed, adding that as representatives of the business community “we will never cease shouting that over-taxation is the number one factor condemning the economy and the market to decline. Greece urgently needs a tax system which will be based on expanding the tax basis, not on the extermination of consistent taxpayers and enterprises”.
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Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: George Voudouris License: CC-BY-SA
Source: ANA-MPA
