General Secretariat for Information Systems

A new bill by the Ministry of National Economy and Finance provides for a 500-euro fine on uninsured passenger cars, while establishing electronic checks to identify them; the same will apply to vehicles that have not passed technical inspection (KTEO) or whose owners have not paid their road tax.

In a bid to crack down on the illegal trade in tobacco, the government is designing a new system that will issue products with unique traceability codes that will accompany each packet from the phase of production, through marketing and up until it reaches consumers.

The state is launching a scheme for creating an electronic identification record for every citizen in Greece with the aim of cracking down on bureaucracy, but also of weeding out taxpayers cheating the state.

The demand by property owners for a tax discount in relation to expenditure on energy improvements and other upgrades to buildings will be satisfied by the government.
POMIDA, the national federation of property owners, has been pushing the idea for a long time and has now managed to convince the government as to its value.

Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos appointed Frangiskos Koutentakis as the new General Secretary of Fiscal Policy, according to the ministry statement.

Petros Triarchis was appointed as new head of the General Secretariat for Information Systems.

The surfacing of former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis “Plan B” for the Greek economy has fast become a wound to the side of the Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) ruling party. Varoufakis own admission that there were plans to “hack” into Greek taxpayers personal tax codes has sent the political world abuzz.

The deadline for the submission of income tax declarations will be extended to July 20, Kathimerini understands.

Sources say that Alternate Finance Minister Nadia Valavani will announce the extension in the next few days, but even that date may prove too soon for the completion of the delayed procedure.

By Evgenia Tzortzi

The regulation that the Finance Ministry is promoting to freeze home repossessions effectively even protects households with high incomes, as it covers not only the 90 percent of households whose main residence is valued up to 200,000 euros, but also the minority that certainly require no protection.

Responsibilities for tax-related affairs are to be transferred from Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis to Deputy Finance Minister Giorgos Mavraganis, according to a decision by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, and Hardouvelis, which was published in the Government Gazette.

The Finance Ministry is expected to open the online system for heating oil subsidy applications on the website of the General Secretariat for Information Systems (www.gsis.gr) on Tuesday.