Dimitris Tsagaris talks about the 2024 budget, the Greek economy and the new tax bill.

The budget is based on the programme that has been announced and the commitments that have emerged in the meantime, economist and business consultant Dimitris Tsagaris told Alpha Radio.
He spoke about the positive picture of the economy reflected in the reports of all the major rating agencies, acknowledged that the government's big enemy is the battle with everyday life and appeared in favour of the new tax law for freelancers.
"Obviously it is a budget of uncertainty, as all recent budgets have been, not only particularly in our country because of the memorandum adventure, but also because of a multidimensional fiscal environment which is changing in Europe as well, let's not forget. See that if tomorrow
this morning it was finally decided, as a discussion has begun, to exclude from the procedure of direct
calculation in the deficits in defence spending, you realize that this will create, if it happens, a new fiscal space for the Greek government of the day.
Similar things will happen if climate change funds are differentiated for the
natural disasters or migration, he mentioned three areas that particularly affect the Greek fiscal order. However, one cannot close one's eyes to the ratings of the international agencies and their comments on the Greek territory, one cannot close one's eyes to the comment of a leading world-class Greek businessman and not a state-owned one, such as Mytilineos, who says that Europe does not have a leader like Mitsotakis. I want to say that the Economist puts Greece in the top 35, and it is also Standard n Poors and other international rating agencies that praise the profile of the Greek economy."
The challenge is to converge with the European average "Of course it is a big bet for the government, the Prime Minister himself said it in the Parliament in his speech yesterday, that the big challenge now is to converge with the European average, the convergence of Greece with Europe, because we went to the euro for the eurozone and finally we went bankrupt, as we all remember, in 2010. So the big bet is this, is the daily life with a vague and labyrinthine public sector, which instead of serving, usually inconveniences the citizen and in the absence of a serious opposition, in the sense of a serious opposition voice, I want to say I because I saw in the parliament very mild tones, I see a picture
presidential democracy in the Greek parliament, it is as if the parliamentary democracy has de facto changed, because we see a prime minister who
who manages to get the positive votes of other factions, there are nine factions in Parliament today and there is not one anti-Mitsotakis."
"So the government's war with everyday life should be even stronger because the real problems are the ones that everyday life is facing, which is precisely the accuracy, inflation and so on. The budget makes some political choices which do not leave the hands of every government so freely, at the moment there are some court decisions which have to be satisfied in terms of personal disputes, pensioners etc., there is a political choice of the government to unfreeze the three-year work, there is a specific obligation in the financial framework in which the Greek budget is moving to contribute to the payment of pensions, there is an increased contribution to defence spending, which is rightly done.
"The budget does not affect private sector workers except in some parts of the budget in terms of state spending and in terms of pensions, some benefits, etc. Democracy requires that this prioritisation of needs, of political choices be made by the parliament and the parties and of course mainly in the government of the day by the minister of national economy and therefore we can all have a different view on any budget but we are not the ones who ultimately impose these choices. They are made on the basis of the vote of the Greek people on a programme announced during the election which is implemented in the budget. On tax, the recent
interventions have to do with the further electronification of the tax environment in Greece plus this provision for the reduction of the use of cash, the implementation of pos everywhere, the electronic invoice and a new set of other such technical arrangements and the minimum presumption of income for professionals. In the sense that, for better or worse, Greece still has presumptive taxation, the existence of a presumption of income tax is a very important factor in the development of the Greek economy.
income tax on self-employed persons is a thought that was late to be implemented, it is a thought given the existence of presumptions, we have presumptions of living and presumptions of acquisition of property, etc. One cannot be excluded because the thought was made that after 5 years the person who declares himself a freelancer does not earn at least what an unskilled worker earns."