Nearly 1.13 million applications for a “social dividend” to be doled out by the government this month have been approved by Friday, out of the 2.66 million submitted electronically.
According to figures supplied by the relevant ministry, the approved applications correspond to just more than 645.7 million euros, with the average payout per eligible beneficiary at 571.58 euros.
While the leftist-rightist coalition government has presented the “social dividend” as the product of efforts to curb tax and contributions evasion, along with increased employment, the political opposition directly points to a “tax tsunami” imposed in 2016 – in order to meet fiscal targets the Tsipras government agreed to meet, as per memorandum obligations – as generating the surplus.
On paper, the roughly 700 billion euros to be funneled back to a large chunk of households comes from an over-performance in terms of the primary budget surplus target, as a percentage of GDP.
