display
The economist and economics professor Peter Bofinger calls for tax-financed shopping vouchers for every German citizen.
The “lock-up vouchers” should only be used in companies that were hit hard by the corona shutdown and had to close, reports “Spiegel”.
In addition to shops, restaurants, fitness studios and cultural institutions could also benefit.
In order to avoid too much rush there, Bofinger suggests assigning the vouchers at random and limiting their validity to a specific month: “If the program is designed for the months of April to December 2021, the additional demand would spread evenly over the remaining Months of the year, ”says the 66-year-old.
With a total of around 83 million beneficiaries, the costs for the tax authorities amounted to 4.15 billion euros.
The companies could deposit the vouchers at their bank like cash.
The banks would pass on the credits to the Bundesbank, which would settle with the Ministry of Finance.
display
That is “administratively easy to design,” says Bofinger.
After the shutdown, “the companies and self-employed people who had to accept massive income losses due to the closure of their operations would have to be given targeted support”.