“At the next cabinet we will discuss and immediately after that we will legislate, specify and implement the ten initiatives we announced on tax evasion. That is, the interconnection of POS with cash registers, the universal application of MyData, the exclusion of smuggling offenders from cooperation with fuel trading companies, etc.”

This is what the Minister of National Economy and Finance Kostis Hatzidakis points out in an interview with the newspaper “To Vima tis Kyriakis”, adding that “for all this we rely on new technologies. But we also rely on our will not to put water in our wine. And let’s decisively fight tax evasion”.

At the same time, as the minister also mentions, “a separate issue, but also connected to these initiatives, is the issue of tax evasion by freelancers. We don’t target every freelancer. Because, many freelancers do not avoid taxes. However, it is not reasonable for many employers to appear with lower incomes than their employee who is paid the minimum wage. Therefore, without raising tax rates, we will focus on tax evaders. We are working on a solution that, taking into account the dictates of the Constitution and the jurisprudence of the courts, will allow us to deal with the problem in such a way as to lay the foundations for a fairer tax system that will ultimately lead to lower tax rates.” .

Asked about her decision of the Court of Auditors on the increases for judges, the minister stated that “we can neither ignore nor despise Justice. However, based on the decision of the Court of Auditors, the increases that would be given to judges would be of the order of 50%! I wonder which MP would vote for them! I also wonder how I could ignore the need for fiscal discipline, when both the Council of State and the Court of Auditors in a series of their decisions on pensions in recent years have highlighted exactly this dimension! In other words, the dimension of the budget’s capacity in relation to our pension system. In other words, the government’s proposal cannot in any case go beyond the provisions of the Stability Pact – which has already been submitted to Brussels – and of course it will be in harmony with earlier decisions of both the Council of State and the Court of Auditors – in which already I mentioned – about the issue of pensions!”.

While regarding “if he is afraid of other accusations coming e.g. academics, doctors, soldiers, where will they also ask for increases?”, Mr. Hatzidakis points out that “under no circumstances can Aeolos’ bag be opened in the insurance system at a time, in fact, when the country is gaining the credit of the international markets and international organizations for our economic course. And this applies to all social groups. All the more so since pension increases have already been frozen since last year. We have laid the foundation and we will keep the edifice standing. We can give what we can bear. No more. The rest would not be pro-people, but anti-people politics. There is indeed a special provision in the Constitution for judicial officials. However, any increase outside the limits, upfront and with retroactive payments, would be challenging for all pensioners. It would, however, also be inconsistent with the need to preserve both fiscal discipline and the government’s general philosophy on the insurance system, which is already known. Therefore, any publication that is beyond what I mentioned to you and the policy we already apply for pensions, does not reflect our intentions!”.

Finally, on the subject of “red” loans, the minister states that “our fixed policy is to cover the truly vulnerable without, however, popularizing. But also without giving the possibility to various crooks to pretend to be vulnerable. We are also interested in transparency in the relationships between servicers and borrowers. There should be information at all times and information equivalent to that which banks give to their customers. It is not much! But it is not registered. So we guarantee it. And we institute penalties for servicers if they keep borrowers in the dark. Among the interventions of the bill will be substantial improvements to the extrajudicial mechanism in order to strengthen the protection of the vulnerable. What are we going to do; First, we will improve the algorithm (that is, the math) of the out-of-court mechanism so that the automated loan arrangements it proposes are more favorable to all borrowers. And, secondly, especially for vulnerable borrowers, servicers will be obliged to accept the arrangements proposed by the out-of-court mechanism!”