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Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 15-07-29
CONTENTS
[01] IMF's Lagarde: debt restructuring a must for Greek programme 'to fly'
[02] Minister announces changes to property tax, more inspections
[03] Greece remains one of the top destinations for tourism, Kountoura
says
[01] IMF's Lagarde: debt restructuring a must for Greek programme 'to fly'
ANA-MPA -- In an online press conference on Wednesday, International
Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde said a
restructuring of Greece's public debt was one of four key elements
needed in order for the programme to work.
"For any programme to fly, significant debt restructuring should
take place," she said. Lagarde presented four key 'legs' that a Greek
programme must have to succeed. She said these included realistic fiscal
targets, structural measures to open up the Greek economy and release its
growth potential, sufficient financing to make the programme workable and
last, a restructuring of the country's debt. The IMF chief also insisted
that the Greek government must have ownership of the new programme. When
asked whether the Greek government will be able to implement a programme
when it has publicly said it does not believe in, Lagarde said the IMF
would look at "deeds, not creeds" and pointed out that what matters in
the end are actions, not words.
[02] Minister announces changes to property tax, more inspections
ANA-MPA -- Greece's Alternate Finance Minister Tryfon Alexiadis on
Wednesday announced plans to revise a special property tax with the aim
of lightening the burden for low incomes and small property holders,
without changing a 2.65 billion euros revenue target. He also announced
a package of measures to intensify controls in the market and in tourist
regions of the country.
Alexiadis said that the ministry was examining measures exploiting credit
cards for direct VAT payments and announced that a plan for an online
connection of cash machines with the ministry's IT authority would
begin from tourist islands. He dismissed the possibility of further
extending a deadline for income tax statements. The Greek minister
said the ministry has already made plans to change a special property
tax, adding: "We cannot reduce the target of 2.5 billion euros in tax
revenue", while he stressed that the ministry was currently discussing a
timetable for property tax payment with the country's creditors. Alexiadis
said that interventions and corrections must be made in the taxation of
farmers, but cautiously in order to avoid impacting primary production
in the country. He said that the issue was under discussion with the
country's creditors. He stressed that the ministry was examining plans
to facilitate enterprises to pay their taxes by the end of the year,
such as expanding a measure for offsetting taxes. He also announced a
package of measures aimed at intensifying tax controls in the market and
particularly in tourist regions. He added that inspections carried out
over the weekend on a total of 1,600 enterprises found that tax evasion
rates were around 23 pct.
[03] Greece remains one of the top destinations for tourism, Kountoura
says
ANA-MPA -- In two interviews with Al Jazeera, Alternate Minister for
Tourism Eleni Kountoura thanked the tourists that had chosen to take
their holidays in Greece and noted that tourist traffic was higher than
last year.
In interviews with Al Jazeera International, the network's channel in
English and the Al Jazeera Media Network in Arabic, Kountoura noted
that tourism is still high in the list of preferred destinations for
tourism and underlined Greece's interest in the tourist market from the
Middle East. In the last month, she added, she had visited Saudi Arabia
and the United Arab Emirates and closed agreements designed to boost Greek
tourism, such as the addition of direct flights to Greece from the end of
June. Noting that Greece was a safe and ideal destination for holidays,
Kountoura also announced the launch of an internet campaign to attract
last-minute tourists throughout the world and said that her ministry is
working round the clock to immediately solve any problems that may arise.
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