Pos, Meloni confirms the turnaround: “We will find another way not to charge commissions”

ROME – “If there are no margins – says Giorgia Meloni on the stop to the rule on the Pos – we will invent another way to not make merchants pay bank commissions on small payments”. It is the first time that the prime minister has publicly questioned the measure included in the budget law which provides for the cancellation of penalties for merchants who refuse to accept payments by debit or credit card under 60 euros. “That” of the obligation of the Pos – you recall as you leave the Senate after the Christmas concert – “is an objective of the Pnrr and therefore we are negotiating it with the Commission”. Words that confirm the government’s turnaround, anticipated by Republicwhich will be contained in an amendment to the maneuver expected tonight in the Budget Committee in the House.

Government sources confirm that the amendment appears in these hours in the list of changes being examined by the Ministry of the Economy, where the balance is also being sought on the other measures of the Budget, starting with pensions, from the minimum to 600 euros for those over 75 to reassessment for those between 4 and 5 times above the minimum. The executive’s decision to cancel the rule on the Pos came about in the light of the progress of the dialogue with the European Commission, which expects compliance with the commitment made at the end of June by the Draghi government in the context of the Pnrr.

The current rules remain

The government’s reversal would therefore leave the situation unchanged with respect to the rules in force, given that the rules initially proposed by the government in its bill were not yet in force until the final approval of the text. The Pos therefore remains mandatory for all merchants – with some limited exceptions – and they are obliged to accept payments of any amount if made by electronic means. In case of refusal, there is a fine of 30 euros plus 4% of the transaction amount.

Meloni: “Time is tight? We’ve done everything possible”

Speaking with reporters, Meloni also replied about the very tight deadlines with which Parliament is examining the text of the budget law. “The maneuver never has easy approval: we are all doing our job, but I think we did our best, in the conditions and within the times they had, to give parliament the opportunity to have time to evaluate it,” he said “I remember that the government which was not born in October, but in February, presented the maneuver on November 20”, he added.

Pd: “Government amendments at 7.30 pm. Reverse to the South, ours will vote”

Meanwhile, the work in the Commission continues in fits and starts. The third package of government amendments, explained the Pd group leader Deborah Serracchiani, “should arrive tonight at 7.30 pm” while “at 9.30 pm Minister Giorgetti will address the Commission”. The parent company then announced that the executive will remove from its package a series of measures already envisaged by the changes advanced by the Pd: “The government has retraced its steps and will remove from its package the proposed changes presented by the Pd on the tax credit for the purchase of capital goods in the South and in the special economic zones, on the tax credit for investments in research and development in the regions of the South and on the modification of the reward quota of the National Health Fund.These texts will become parliamentary amendments “Serracchiani said.