A bill presented by Deputy Premier and Infrastructure Minister Matteo Salvini's Lega party to raise Italy's limit for cash payments from 2,000 to 10,000 euro, has come under fire from the left opposition.
Salvini argued that the proposal makes sense, and would help to encourage "less bureaucracy, more freedom."
Giovanbattista Fazzolari, a Senator for Premier Giorgia Meloni's Fratelli D’Italia (FdI) party, also backed the idea, saying it was part of the victorious centre-right coalition's election manifesto.
Fazzolari said that lifting the threshold could be among the measures in the government's 2023 budget law.
But the opposition, centre-left Democratic Party (PD), said it was staunchly against the idea.
“It totally goes against what has been done in Italy and most European countries in recent years to gradually reduce the use of cash and encourage traceable payments and the fight against the underground economy," said the PD's economic point man Antonio Misiani.
When asked about the bill, European Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis said that setting the cash-payment limit was up to member States, also adding that the EU executive preferred the thresholds to be low.
