With the farmer unions appearing adamant over their demands and calling their colleagues to reinforce and support the road blocks that have been set up on national highways across the country, the Minister of Finances Yannis Stournaras has arranged to meet with farmer representatives on Thursday.
The farmers had been demanding a meeting with Mr. Stournaras since last week in order to explain to him their objections over the new tax framework, as well as other issues related to their sector such as rising cost of production and debt settlements.
Amongst the farmer demands are to abolish the provision of keeping revenue and expenses books for farmers, whose turnover is less than 40,000 euros, establishing a 20,000-euro tax-free family threshold (which increases by 5,000 euro per child) and to put an end to the persecution of farmers unable to pay tax debts. The unions have also called for the government to take initiatives to reduce the cost of production.
