The Minister of Agricultural Development Evangelos Apostolou has recognized that the tax and insurance changes for farmer that were announced by the government will be painful, but called farmers, who are setting up roadblocks across Greece to enter talks.
In a Monday morning interview for Mega Channel, Mr. Apostolou attributed the changes to the bailout agreement and underlined that Greece will receive 3.5 billion euros from Europe towards agriculture.
Mr. Apostolou estimated that the pension reform will hit farmers the hardest, with their annual insurance contributions set to increase from 940 euros to 1,540 over a four-year period.
The tax burden, however, will be lower with taxes set to increase from 220 million euros to 240-250 million euros. Given that the net farmer income that is being declared is 1.3 billion euros on an annual basis, the Minister estimated that raising the income tax will not have as dramatic an effect on their livelihood.
