PM Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday defended two flagship budget measures accused by the Bank of Italy and others of potentially favouring tax evasion: raising the limit for cash transactions and the minimum amount for card payments.
Italy’s PM defended two of her 2023 budget measures. One was enabling retailers to refuse to accept card payments for amounts below €60. This would prevent them having to pay commissions on small payments that make the transactions less worthwhile to them. The other was raising the limit for cash payments from €2,000 to €5,000.
Previously, Meloni had said the measure enabling retailers to refuse to accept card payments for amounts up to €60 could be changed. She had also said there might be some wiggle room on the new €5,000 cash payment ceiling.
However, on Wednesday the PM reportedly told majority whips she was proud of the two measures, which she said “made sense”.
Meloni remarked commission costs on card payments are borne by retailers and not by the citizens who use the service. If they were borne by citizens, she told the whips, “I think that no one would pay for a coffee with their card”.
The €60 threshold for electronic payments, she also explained, could be put to further debate at an EU level and not an Italian one.
