The proposal is from the League, Matteo Salvini’s party, which has deposited the text this week In the Senate’s reply, the new prime minister was favorable because she says that it helps those who have less The opposition attacks on the shadow of linked tax evasion Made to measure Italy has been raising and lowering the ceiling for economic exchanges in cash for years, there is no agreement between the political formations and the rules change easily, in fact they have done so at least ten times in the last two decades. Mario Draghi’s intention in his Executive was to lower the cap, at that time by two thousand euros, to one thousand. He met the reluctance of the Brothers of Italy, at that time in opposition, and of the League and Forza Italia and, in the end, an extension of the implementation of said measure was approved until this January. He measure that, predictably, he will no longer have a future with the arrival of a new government since last weekend’s inauguration that, it seems, has completely different plans in this matter. Matteo Salvini’s League presented a bill on Wednesday so that the maximum in cash reaches 10,000 euros and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni supported the idea in her reply to the Senate. As Senator Fazzolari, one of the premier’s closest collaborators, has indicated, the change could already be included in the budgets, which will be negotiated these weeks, and which have to be closed before the end of the year. “I confirm that we will get our hands on the cash ceiling, because it helps the poor,” announced Giorgia Meloni. “I will say it clearly, there is no correlation between the maximum limit of cash transactions and the spread of the underground economy. There are countries where there is no limit and evasion is very low, these are the words of Piercarlo Padoan, minister of the governments of Renzi and Gentiloni, governments of the PD”, the prime minister then added, anticipating criticism from the opposition, but ignoring that after a while Padoan himself admitted that he had raised the ceiling to 3,000 euros at the time of the Renzi government “ it was a mistake”. The announcement immediately unleashed a storm in Parliament with all the opposition, from the Democratic Party to the M5S, who attacked the Government accusing it of wanting to favor evaders and mafias. The increase in the ceiling on cash payments It has always been a political measure linked to the right in Italy. 15 years ago, when Berlusconi was prime minister, the maximum reached 12,500 euros. Today the situation is completely different, even in terms of commitments to the European Union. Electronic payments are promoted, an indication that is explicitly mentioned in the objectives of the European Recovery Funds (PNRR in Italian), as part of the strategies to combat tax evasion. Compared to other European countries, the general map is not unanimous: only 12 European states out of 30 propose limits on cash. The lowest is that of Greece, 500 euros and then the others remain at figures close to two thousand or three thousand euros such as Spain and Belgium. Germany, for example, does not set limits. “The cash limit? Better low, but the states decide,” European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said on the subject. Gianmarco Daniele, an economist at the Bocconi University of Milan specializing in tax fraud and corruption, analyzes the measure. This is a symbolic norm, which, in reality, has a limited impact on reality, but a great value in political discourse and in society. That is the reason why each new government makes its own modifications, those on the left they go down and those on the right increase it”, he explains. On the more technical part and the great argument of the opposition about the increase in tax evasion with a higher ceiling, such as 10 thousand euros, Daniele explains that there are not many concrete studies “The most prominent and of great importance is one from the Bank of Italy from three years ago that indicates that lowering cash reduces the shadow economy,” he explains. “But it is true that a small political measure is not enough. , like this one, to fight against a big problem with many aspects such as tax evasion”, adds the expert. “The arguments used by the right in favor of increasing the ceiling on cash transactions, saying that it helps the poor and the elderly, are actually appeals to the very important cultural part of this measure. In Italy it is still very diffusely paid in cash”, he says. “In a period as complex as this one, with a great economic strategy dependent on Europe (Pnrr), it is logical that the Government that arrives tries to play its cards in small and very representative measures like this one”, he concludes.