Alternate Finance Minister Tryfon Alexiadis told private MEGA TV on Thursday that there will not be an imposition of taxes on people who did not have the foresight to gather receipts for 2015. Specifically, at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, the Ministry of Finance abolished Code 049 on tax statements that concerned the collection of receipts – a code that had recently been enforced, sending Greeks that had not collected receipts from their purchases into panic.

The new provision that soon became old got into the multi-bill and came into consultation over the weekend and is to be filed next week for approval in Greek Parliament. The addendum also stated that there would be a 22% fine on the amount of receipts that had not been gathered. For instance, someone earning 10,000 euros per annum that had not managed to gather 1,000 euros worth of receipts would then be forced to pay fines worth 220 euros.

On Thursday morning, however, Alexiadis said: “We would never impose a 22% tax on consumers who did not collect receipts.” Furthermore, he underlined that there is a gap in the law because the issue had to be legislatively resolved by December 2014 but had not. Alexiadis underlined that the issue would be solved in legal-technical terms but did not give further details as to how this would be done.