Cashback: high membership, funds for everyone

The funds to pay all State Cashback refunds are there. And if what has been allocated proves to be insufficient, others will arrive. Yet another reassurance came from Antonio Misiani, Deputy Minister of Economy, who spoke during the broadcast L'aria che tira su LA7, explicitly speaking of an adhesion by Italians that went beyond expectations.

Credo that the adhesion was higher than expected, so much so… there could be a risk that the funds allocated are not sufficient. I would like to reassure all those who have used the Cashback, if there is a need we will refinance to guarantee what has been promised.

The money for the Cashback is and will be there

We must reiterate it, considering so many rumors circulated on the subject, sometimes amplified by alarmist tones about a possible cut in the repayment accrued. It will not happen: everything accumulated by citizens with the December expenses will be regularly paid into the current accounts of Italians by the end of February to the indicated IBAN, even if the outlay for the public coffers should exceed the budgeted one: 227.9 million euro for the Christmas Extra Cashback and about 1.35 billion euro for the three subsequent six-monthly periods.

The information announced last week by Palazzo Chigi is therefore underlined again. The goal is to encourage the use of electronic and digital payments as an alternative to cash, thus also helping to deal a blow to the scourge of tax evasion.

Cashback has also been designed to stimulate purchases in physical stores excluding from the reimbursement the expenses made online, precisely to meet the merchants heavily penalized by the restrictive measures of 2020.

The Italian backwardness in the use of electronic money costs the country between 10 and 15 billion euros per year. These are the cash management costs. It is a cost that we must reduce to promote the competitiveness of businesses and household savings. From this point of view, an incentive mechanism like the one we have built is certainly useful.

Misiani also tackles the important issue linked to how to finance the initiative: you don't necessarily have to rely on what to rely on the Recovery Plan.

It does not necessarily have to be financed through the Recovery Plan. I believe it is necessary to allocate important resources for this purpose and we have done so with the decrees and the budget maneuver. I think where to decide this allocation is a secondary question.

Source: LA7