Katerina Papanatsiou

Main opposition SYRIZA has found itself with 35 seats in Greece's 300-seat Parliament after Magnisia MP Katerina Papanatsiou stepped down over disagreements with the party's new leadership.

The deadline for submission of income tax declarations has been extended to July 29, Deputy Finance Minister Katerina Papanatsiou said on Monday.

The original deadline for submissions had been June 30.

The announcement followed a delay in taxpayers sending their income statements to the authorities. 

The value-added tax on coffee, tea and various other products is dropping from 24 percent to 13 percent, but only as far as the prices on supermarket shelves are concerned.

The government has now entered a course of pre-election handouts, as the primary budget surplus of 2018 that the European Union's statistics office announced on Tuesday exceeded expectations, depriving the economy of the momentum for growth that it badly needs while facilitating the ruling party's election planning.

A controversial draft bill that has been widely criticized as giving the green light to illegal construction on the country's coasts has been revised by the government and resubmitted to Parliament.

A controversial draft bill that has been widely criticized as giving the green light to illegal construction on the country's coasts has been revised by the government and resubmitted to Parliament.

The government is providing 400,000 special wage grid workers and pensioners who have received retroactive payments for cuts made as part of austerity measures with another pre-election handout, by exempting the sums they were awarded last year from the solidarity levy.

The Finance Ministry plans to increase the number of monthly installments for the payment of income tax and the ENFIA property levy.

Speaking to ANT1 TV, Deputy Finance Minister Katerina Papanatsiou said the government wants "some of the taxes to be paid in more installments" in 2019.

Property rates used for tax purposes, known as "objective values," will be adjusted next year and again in 2020, Deputy Finance Minister Katerina Papanatsiou confirmed on Wednesday.

Enterprises and self-employed people who fail to declare a professional or corporate bank account to the tax authorities are set to face hefty fines.