The first written text of the 32 billion euro maneuver approved by the Council of Ministers last Monday arrives. It confirms the main system already illustrated by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who rewrites the basic income, cuts the tax wedge and introduces Quota 103 for pensions. But there are some new things. In the draft of the 2023 Budget Law there is a rule concerning payments with the Pos. It provides for the exemption from the obligation to accept credit and debit cards for receipts under 30 euros.
According to the provisions of the draft maneuver approved in the CDM, the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy will establish by June (180 days) the “exclusion criteria in order to guarantee the proportionality of the sanction and to ensure the economy of the transactions in relation at their costs”. In the meantime, “procedures and deadlines for the adoption of sanctions are suspended”. That is, those that provided for a fixed amount of 30 euros plus 4% of the denied transaction.
The sanctions had been introduced with the decree law n.36 because they were foreseen by the Recovery Plan as one of the objectives to be achieved in June 2022. The Draghi government had anticipated the entry into force of the fines, now the new executive is backtracking. The obligation to accept payments with debit cards, which are therefore traceable, dates back to the Growth decree of the Monti government, in 2012. In 2014, the minimum threshold was set at 30 euros and the entry into force was postponed to June 2014. Stability for 2016 had reduced the ceiling to 5 euros, introduced exceptions for cases of “objective technical impossibility” and provided for penalties of 500 euros for the merchant who is found to be without a POS terminal, with the risk of doubling to 1,000 euros followed even from the suspension of the activity if he did not comply.
In the meantime, the front of the “No Pos” traders was born, i.e. those who were against electronic payments “in order not to fatten the banks”. And together came the first stories about categories that refused to use it, such as taxi drivers. A controversy had also developed over the cost of renting the Pos. The average commission paid, according to the calculations of a study reported by La Stampa, is 0.9%. 0.54% ends up on international circuits such as Visa or Mastercard. The rest is the prerogative of Italian banks. For small merchants the bill amounts to 1.32%. 0.78%, in this case, ends up with credit institutions.