Piraeus Traders: Small Businesses Need Immediate Solutions, Not Relief Delayed for Years

The Piraeus Commercial Association says Greece’s small and medium-sized businesses need relief now, not tax reductions spread across future years.

The association described measures announced by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at the 90th Thessaloniki International Fair as positive but inadequate for the needs of the market. Businesses, it said, had expected more measures with a direct effect on their daily operations.

Small firms continue to face high operating and energy costs, limited liquidity, accumulated obligations, difficulty accessing finance and squeezed profit margins. The association added that digital compliance is creating another rising expense, as businesses face new digitalization requirements without equivalent incentives or tools to help smaller companies adapt.

It singled out the different timetable for abolishing the business tax for companies in Attica as particularly problematic. The association said the geographic distinction created unequal tax treatment, arguing that a business in Piraeus does not have lower costs or fewer obligations simply because it operates in Attica.

The association also welcomed a planned reduction in advance tax payments but said its gradual implementation over several years sharply reduces its value as an immediate liquidity measure. Measures that increase citizens’ disposable income could support consumption and retail, it said, but Greece also needs more investment, productivity, export orientation and businesses capable of expanding. The group listed the elimination of presumptive taxation for the fully connected retail sector, sustainable debt arrangements, a functioning protected business account, a meaningful reduction in advance tax and equal tax treatment among its remaining priorities.