Welcomed with great enthusiasm by fans of electronic payments and with a bit of skepticism by others, as anticipated in recent days, the first “round” of Cashback ended yesterday. Today, 1 July, a second phase should have started, but it will not take place.
Recall that the state Cashback was a system designed to encourage electronic and traceable purchases and consisted of a refund up to € 150 (or, more precisely, 10% of the total expenditure) to those who carried out at least 50 transactions in six months in physical stores. With the suspension of the cashback system, the so-called Superbonus also ends, which provides for the assignment of 100,000 prizes of 1,500 €, for those who have spent the most in the last six months. Currently, the IO app reads that the cashback will resume on January 1, 2022, but it is very likely that this is a mistake: do not be under any illusions, then.
The decision to terminate the Cashback came after the last Council of Ministers, during which the Prime Minister Mario Draghi would have explained to his Ministers the reason for the suspension.
According to Draghi, Cashback is a regressive measure : that is, it tends to favor those with higher income, while the Italian tax system is based on a formula progressive (which therefore favors the redistribution of income towards less well-off groups). As reported by ANSA, in fact, Draghi would have declared:
Cashback has a regressive character and is intended to direct resources towards the categories and areas of the country in better economic conditions. The greatest concentration of alternative means to cash is registered among the inhabitants of the North and, more generally, of large cities.
The measure risks accentuating the inequality between incomes, favoring the richest families, with a presumably lower propensity to consume, causing a multiplicative effect on GDP that is not sufficiently significant compared to the cost of the measure
We recall that if it had remained in force until the end, scheduled for June 2022, the cashback would have cost the Italian State 4.75 billion euros ; as a side note, we also remind you that according to the latest ISTAT data currently in Italy 5.6 million people are in conditions of absolute poverty (i.e. n are not able to purchase a set of goods and services considered essential to lead a dignified life ).
