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Greek Union Says It Won't Collect New Property Tax

Nikos Fotopoulos, head of the powerful Greek union GENOP

ATHENS – Leaders of GENOP, the union representing electric company workers charged with collecting a new emergency property tax levied on Greek citizens to raise $2.7 billion said they would sabotage the plan because it’s not their responsibility and goes after people who already can’t pay their bills.
“GENOP will not allow PPC to be used as a tax collection mechanism,” said GENOP’s outspoken President, Nikos Fotopoulos. In a statement on its website, GENOP, one of the country’s most powerful unions, said, “PPC is no cowboy or sheriff to put the gun to the head of the Greek people,” adding that authorities should target high-income tax evaders who are costing the country as much as $40 billion a year and who are believed to not list their properties or register outside the country through tax loopholes and who will avoid the new levy too.
Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos ordered the new payments, which will cost an average of $5.50 per square meter, because the government said international lenders would otherwise block an $11 billion loan installment due this month, leaving Greece – which has already stopped paying its bills – without enough money to pay its workers and pensioners as well. It was not reported whether churches and Church-owned buildings would be exempt.
Venizelos wants the taxes put into electric bills to thwart tax evaders, but it’s going to hit hard at the middle class already suffering under big pay cuts and tax hikes while tenants said they expect landlords will just pass on the bills to them. The government already uses the electric company to collect municipal taxes and a mandatory fee to fund state-run television station ERT, which is facing cutbacks and the loss of one of its stations. The Athens newspaper Kathimerini said that GENOP staff plan to obstruct the issuing of electricity bills and stop PPC staff from cutting the power of customers who refuse to pay the tax. Government spokesman Ilias Mossialos spoke out against “Won’t Pay” movements, noting that Greece’s dire economic situation demanded a patriotic response by citizens. Many Greeks have already refused to pay for the Metro system or toll road highways.
The new tax was further condemned by the civil servants’ union, ADEDY, who said it was another unfair burden on working Greeks who have already been besieged by a wave of new taxes. The main conservative opposition, New Democracy, also slammed the tax, noting that it demonstrated the “absolute failure” of the government’s austerity drive. The Hellenic Property Federation (POMIDA) urged the Finance Ministry to be realistic and fair about how it applies the new, two-year property levy on all buildings. “The measure will be effective in terms of revenue yield only if the charge per square meter is low, so that citizens can meet it.
The imposition of a high rate will have the opposite result in the present circumstances,” it said in a statement. The new charge, to be collected via electricity bills, will be staggered according to the value of the property, which mainly depends on location, and will range from 68 cents per square meter in the cheapest areas to $13.78 in the most expensive areas, such as Kolonaki, Kifissia, Glyfada and Vouliagmeni, havens to rich tax evaders.
POMIDA also said that communal areas of apartment blocks should be exempted from the charge, as building managers are already having huge difficulties in collecting charges for common use areas. The federation also said it was obvious that unused buildings with no electricity supply and empty commercial premises will be exempted from the measure.

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