Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 15-03-29

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Potami leader Theodorakis lashes out at government's double-faced policies and Grexit talk

[02] Twelve released over explosion at Dafni police station; other incidents over the weekend

[03] New electronic system to track deposits to 15 years back, alternate FinMin interview

[01] Potami leader Theodorakis lashes out at government's double-faced policies and Grexit talk

At a Potami meeting in Parliament, Theodorakis said the government's attitude was to pretend they are "sympathetic pro-Europeanists in Brussels and Berlin, and nationalist-populist and Stalinists in Athens" and made fun of them about relations with China: "'We will not turn the port into Chinatown!' the relevant minister says, and he has to go to Beijing before we find out that we will turn it into Chinatown with pleasure, as long as the Chinese help us a bit with 200 million in interest-bearing bills."

Theodorakis called on Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to decide on whether he wants Greece to remain in the euro, as the Greek people have mandated, saying that decisions on the country's future are not an affair of a single party and called talks with European partners "a fiasco with negotiation amateurisms."

Among other criticism he levelled at the government and its creditors, the Potami leader said, "As talkative as the ministers are - and some of them are meddlesome in terms of the [SYRIZA] party - they have not even managed to put together a list of reforms. It's because campaign rhetoric is one thing, and government policy is another."

Some can and others are not able, Theodorakis said, "so Tsipras is obliged to transform himself from an enthusiastic European in Berlin to the manager of a suffocating inter-party and governmental environment that is dominated by personalities and fixations of the past."

He added that it was imperative Tsipras take a clear stance: "Alexis Tsipras must decide - reforms and Greece's remaining in Europe, or exit and national tragedy, that is the dilemma." The Greek people's mandate is for "a state of justice with economic and social protection, a European country - not a country dipping its feet in obsessions and nationalisms with bowed citizens looking for Third World support," he charged.

The Potami leader said time is running out and the only solution for Greece is to break with interests groups, unionists and those who undermine the country's European path, not to listen to those who paint a rosy picture of a transition to a local currency.

[02] Twelve released over explosion at Dafni police station; other incidents over the weekend

About 25 people wearing hoodies and helmets threw several bombs at the station a little after 22:30 on Saturday, damaging three police cars but without injuring anyone. Police of the motorcycle squad (Dias) arrested twelve people for identification.

Early on Sunday morning, at 04:30, another police station was attacked by self-made bombs in the Zografos section of Athens, in a similar manner. They slightly damaged the entrance to the building and the roof of a police car parket outside. Police did not find them.

In other incidents, this time around the Athens Polytechnic, two people aged 20 and 21 were arrested on Saturday and were expected to appear before prosecutors today, Sunday, following an anti-establishment rally in the centre of Athens. Case files were drawn up against them for damaging property and disturbing the peace.

According to police, a group participating in a march from Monastiraki Square to Syntagma spraypainted buildings and injured a Monastiraki shop owner. Then some of the same people walked to the Polytechnic, entered the building and placed trash bins as barricades before setting them on fire, after which they attacked police with stones and other objects.

The 21-year-old has been arrested previously for similar incidents in December 2014 and was set free on condition he would appear at the local police station the first half of each month.

[03] New electronic system to track deposits to 15 years back, alternate FinMin interview

Valavani also said that cash registers will be linked electronically to the finance ministry's central information system and that payment by cards will be expanded.

The bank deposit registry, she said, will give the authorities the ability to check immediately the real tax-paying ability of an individual. The registry "will facilitate the government's plans for the option of 'stating voluntarily' - without penal offences - funds of tax evasion, not from kickbacks or other criminal activities, that exist or have gone through bank accounts in Greece and abroad," Valavani explained.

Doctors and lawyers will also be able to connect to the system, she said. In terms of the 12,000-euro tax exemption for individuals, the minister said that it will be legislated in the second half of this year and will be applied to 2015 revenues. "The only people we finally hope to burden [with taxes] are those who have been taxed at much lower rates than their actual tax-payment ability - due to tax evasion or the so-called legal tax evasion," Valavani said.

Asked to comment on the lower VAT status on Greek islands, she said the reasons for reduced VAT rates on popular Aegean islands like Mykonos and Santorini are no longer valid. "I do not understand why thoughts of aligning these two islands with the VAT rates of the rest of the country raises protests, for example, from the mayor of Lesvos - is it out of solidarity?" she asked of the northeast Aegean island's mayor.

Among other things, she said that taxes on drinks and cigarettes were already very high.

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