Revenues boosted as Greeks get used to paying with plastic

A considerable portion of the underground economy has been forced out into the open as a result of the capital controls and the increased use of plastic money, contributing significantly to an increase in tax revenues, which in the January-August period exceeded their target by 364 million euros.

Finance Ministry sources say that if plastic money was used for 100 percent of transactions in the market value-added tax evasion would be reduced by 50 percent. The European Commission puts the figure of VAT dodging in Greece at 5 billion euros per year.

Furthermore, it is estimated that increasing the current VAT exemption level from 10,000 euros of annual takings per company to 25,000 euros - a measure which has repeatedly been examined but never implemented - would reduce tax evasion further, while also cutting the state's administrative costs.

Already the phenomenon...