23.11.2022
Finance Minister Konstantinos Petrides on Wednesday called the House of Parliament’s recent decision to suspend the foreclosure bill a “shoot in the foot”, noting that the only people who could benefit are strategic defaulters.
Commenting on a letter he sent to the Attorney General in which he mentioned the suspension of enforcement, Petrides said state-owned asset management company Kedipes disclosed on Tuesday how much money the taxpayer would lose by passing the bill.
Kedipes chairman Lambros Papadopoulos said on Tuesday that frequent interference with the foreclosure structure would negatively impact the company’s ability to generate cash inflows.
In addition, Papadopoulos noted that this arrangement affects loans totaling 2.9 billion euros, which is half of Kedipes’ portfolio.
The finance minister said “this is a bill for no reason as the only people it will serve are strategic defaulters or those who have property and income but refuse to meet their obligations”, noting that no primary residence owned by the vulnerable people, was not out of the question.
“This is really ridiculous and no one in the EU can understand how the vast majority of farms or commercial properties, regardless of income, value and ability to pay, can fall under this legislation,” Petrides added. These things, he explained, “cannot be understood by the EU because there is no logic in the bill.”
Moreover, Petrides said that “they believe that the people who benefit from this are those who deliberately refuse to pay their obligations. Because if they don’t pay them, someone else will.” He went on to say that savers and taxpayers paid for these people in 2013, noting that “these things are dangerous.”
In addition, the finance minister said that “enforcing a suspension for some specific purposes, as was done during the pandemic, based on the recommendations of the EU itself, for 3-4 months, and another during the pandemic, is another time when a 6.6 percent increase was recorded.”
“At a time when we see that deposits have grown significantly compared to 2019, the period when there is an opportunity to repay the debt, prolongs this situation for the 15th month in a row, jeopardizing its legalization,” Petrides added.
“And that is why we protested against the suspension of the bill, trying to appeal to reason. These questions are very important. We have made great strides in the economy, but now we are in a crisis and we are trying to face the challenges. Let’s not shoot ourselves in the foot for the sake of populism during the pre-election period, let’s not shoot ourselves,” he concluded.
