A senior Greek government official announced that pre-legislated pension cuts will not be applied as of January 1, while its draft budget for 2019 contains 765 million euros worth of positive social measures.
The measures, which a part of the Draft Budget presented to the European Commission for approval include the following:
* The introduction of a new rent and housing subsidy scheme with income and property criteria.
* Reductions in self-employed and farmers' insurance contributions by 1/3 and the application of the minimum income base for supplementary pensions and benefits.
* A subsidy to social security contributions for young workers. The measure will cover young people up to 24 years old and will consist of a 100 pct subsidy for employees' contributions and a 50 pct subsidy for employers' contributions.
* The reduction of Uniform Real Estate Tax ENFIA by 10 pct.
* The reduction of income tax for legal entities. The measure consists of gradually reducing the rate of taxation from 29 pct to 25 pct over a four-year horizon and will have a budgetary impact from 2020 onwards.
* A reduction in the tax rate of dividends. The measure concerns the reduction of the tax rate on distributed profits by 5 percentage points and will have a financial impact from 2020 onwards.
* The home assistance programme. The current working status of 3,000 fixed-term workers is converted to an indefinite contract.
* Strengthening special education and training schools.
