Greece’s government plans to push for a tougher stance against tax dodgers – including jail – in the new tax bill to be tabled at the parliament next week, Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras said on Dec. 5.
The draft would contain an article which will prohibit those convicted of tax evasion from having their sentences suspended as is customary now, he said during a meeting with Greek President Karolos Papoulias in Athens to brief him on the latest developments for the ailing economy.
Officials said they believe the measure would drive major tax dodgers to pay their due for fear of immediate imprisonment. Tax evasion is regarded as one key factor in the crisis which threatens Greece with bankruptcy since late 2009 and no government has prosecuted a single major tax cheat.
Stournaras told Papoulias that the government will submit to the assembly by Dec. a “mini” tax bill, which will be followed with a wider tax reform bill next spring, echoing cries from previous administrations which said they would get tough on tax cheats but did next to nothing after the announcement.
The new get-tough stance came after Transparency International’s (TI) nnual report on graft that showed Greece is the most country in the European Union, falling to 94th in the world, behind even the drug-cartel haven of Colombia and the corruption-riddled African country of Liberia.
TI’s Athens office director, Costas Bakouris, said Greece’s debt problems and graft were inextricably linked. “The economic crisis is connected to corruption and the fight against it is one of the keys for Greece to emerge from its fiscal woes,” he said.
Partners in the pro-austerity three-party coalition still differ on some aspects of the “mini” bill. The PASOK Socialist and tiny Democratic Left, which together have barely 10 percent support among voters anymore, objected to New Democracy Conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’ ideas of more taxes on the middle class, although the Premier denied there would be higher rates on those earning as little as 25,000 euros ($32,700) annually.
PASOK and the Democratic Left warned they would no longer keep supporting crushing taxes on workers while tax evaders continue to escape prosecution. Tax cheats owe an estimated $70 billion.
(Sources: Kathimerini, Xinhua)
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