“The left should study European legislation”

Galeazzo Bignami – Picture by Ansa Foto

At the microphones of iNews24, Galeazzo Bignami, deputy of the Brothers of Italy, on the roof of the treasury and the energy crisis.

The cash cap has always been a divisive measure. There are those who believe it is a way to fight escape.
“The cash cap is not a tool that demonstrates the effectiveness of the fight against tax evasion. It is wrong to link the question of cash to the fight against tax evasion. Even the European Commission, in a 2018 communication, argues that there is no proven correlation between the two”;

So why is this a measure that should be implemented?
“In the meantime, the currency is that of the ECB. In addition to ten thousand euros, in my opinion, the left should make an effort to study, because sometimes ignorance is perplexing, even in matters of European legislation. Not more than a year ago – maybe less – the European Commission proposed the hypothesis of introducing a cash cap of EUR 10,000, precisely because out of 27 Member States, 11 do not have it and 16 have it, with different formulas. There are realities like Germany, which have it, and it also plans to buy a house for 100 thousand euros showing ID. Croatia and Slovakia have it for 15 thousand euros. For the countries that have it, it is a very flexible tool. Thus, the 10,000 euros we are talking about are nothing more than the implementation of an indication that comes from the European Union”;

Would there be advantages to capping the use of cash at 10,000 euros?
“I don’t understand why the benefits should be mentioned. Money is the result of the work of each of us and each has the right to spend the money as he sees fit. As our civil code provides, the circulation of wealth is one of the fundamental tools of official well-being”;

How to fight against tax evasion then?
“The evasion phenomena are associated with organized criminal or common law movements that do not concern small businesses. They combine with money laundering phenomena that imply increased state control over those who evade, because they are already in the territory of illegality and crime. One cannot think that the fight against tax evasion coincides with the embrace of those who are already cramped and in the simple search for income as an end in itself. If there are irregular phenomena that require attention, it is right to pursue them. But we can’t pretend that the real escape isn’t the one pursued by big business operating in illegal territory. If someone knows, for example, a craftsman who escapes, he is right to denounce him, but there must be real controls on the great escape”;

How will you act to deal with the energy emergency and the expensive bills?
“In the meantime, steps must be taken to stop speculation. This is done with policies aimed at eroding the spaces in which it has evolved until now, especially a European market that is not very transparent and insufficient, I am thinking of the TTF but not only. Then we need to develop two trajectories and two different phases. The first two are dedicated to families and businesses. The second are economic: measures must be adopted downstream to protect purchasing power and families, therefore also to protect producers from price increases in finished products, determined by the absorption of energy costs in the production cycle. . These inevitably affect families, because if a good costs more, it affects their purchasing power. The other is a structural plan, which has as its objective a path towards energy autonomy”.