Value-added tax

Rhodes, Santorini, Mykonos, Naxos, Paros and Skiathos will reportedly be the first six islands where a discounted VAT rate will be axed, bringing the lowest rate to 9 percent (from 6), the medium rate to 13 percent (from 9) and the “uber-high” rate to 23 percent (from the current 16 percent).

Agreements on the designing, construction and oversight of the Kresna-Sandanski section of the Struma motorway will be signed Friday at Bulgaria's Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works.

Friday marks the traditional blessing ceremony for schools around Greece, signaling the start of another school year. The 2015-2016 school bell with knell for 1,300,000 school students who will kick off the year with a teacher shortage. As if the 25,000 missing teachers were not enough, there is also the 23% VAT hike for private schools still up in the air!

A furor over a 23-percent VAT rate slapped on private school and colleges’ tuition fees raged on Tuesday, with the opposition pointing directly to class-based “ideological insistence” by leftist SYRIZA to include the measure in bailout-mandated tax hikes.

Bulgaria's central government budget showed a surplus of BGN 789M equivalent to 0.9% of the projected 2015 GDP at the end of July, the Finance Ministry announced on Monday.

This compared with a budget gap of BGN 1.15B, or 1.4% of GDP at the end of July 2014.

The World Bank has recommended to Bulgaria to cut Value Added Vax (VAT) levied on medicines as the tax is too high and poses a heavier burden on the poorer patients, Sega news daily reported on Monday.

The head of the Bulgarian Customs Agency Vanyo Tanov hinted on Friday at the possible existence of price cartel between the petrol stations in the country.

According to Tanov, the price of a liter of petrol including excise duties and VAT was BGN 1.8, so the difference in the final prices found at petrol stations hinted of a cartel.

Romania's political parties on Thursday agreed to cut the VAT rate from 24 to 20 per cent from January 1 next year and agreed a further cut to 19 per cent starting 2017.

The centre-left government of Victor Ponta has championed a package of tax cuts, saying it is needed to boost growth.

Members of Romania's parliament across parties agreed on Thursday to cut Value Added Tax (VAT) to 20% from next year, and to 19% from 2017.

VAT in Romania currently stands at 24%.

Aside from the tax cuts, the government led by Prime Minister Victor Ponta also plans to increase considerably the wages in the public sector from 2016.

Greece and its international lenders (EC, ECB, IMF and ESM) reached the 85-bln-euro bailout agreement to cover the next three years after 23 hours of talks that ran through the night on Tuesday.