The representatives of POS companies, cash registers and these installation techniques were met today by the Minister of Economy and Finance, Kostis Hatzidakis, together with the competent Deputy Minister, Haris Theocharis and the Governor of AADE, George Pitsilis.

The aim of the meeting was, on the one hand, to initiate all the remaining actions with the aim of completing the interconnection of POS with the cash registers by February 29, and on the other hand, to speed up where necessary.

The work of interfacing is an extremely complex one which requires the continuous cooperation and coordination of dozens of companies for the software upgrade and the interconnection of 400,000 POS systems and the same amount of cash registers. The progress that has already been made is important as the Ministry and AADE have completed for some time now 11 legislative and administrative procedures that were required for the project to proceed.

Analytically:
– in September 2023, the POS register was established and the first transmission of data from providers was completed.
– In October 2023, all relevant decisions regarding the timetable and interconnection process were issued.
– In November, the deadline for submitting a statement to the POS Registry expired (1,032,000 POS are registered) and a special committee was created with the participation of the competent Deputy Minister Haris Theoharis, the Governor of AADE Giorgos Pitsilis and representatives of all agencies with the aim of coordination and better organization of the course of the project.
– Finally, throughout December and January providers had the time frame to comply with the rules of the new declaration and operation framework for both wired and wireless POS.

Kostis Hatzidakis pointed out that “the interconnection of POS with cash registers is a landmark project for dealing with tax evasion”. He also emphasized how “it is a project included in the Recovery Fund where its possible non-implementation will lead to the interruption of funding. The interconnection project will be completed at all costs”, he said characteristically, while stressing that “under no circumstances will the Government allow the interruption, even partially, of the financing of the country from the Recovery Fund, for a project that is for benefit of society and will make a decisive contribution to tackling tax evasion. Everyone therefore has to do what they have to do,” he noted.

For his part, the responsible deputy minister, Haris Theocharis, emphasized that “the political will to proceed with a project which is a demand of society, a practical necessity, but which will actually help to strengthen the mechanisms for dealing with tax evasion, is a given”. He added that “we recognize the difficulty of the project, but on the other hand, we expect tangible proof that all market players want to play a constructive role so that this project can be completed within the specified time frame. With this goal, we intensify the rhythms to reach the desired result. The road we are following is a one-way road; there is no other alternative and this is the message we wanted to convey today.”

At the meeting, it was decided to cooperate on a daily basis through the joint committee of the executives of the Ministry of National Economy and Finance, the AADE and the representatives of the above companies, in order to deal with any issues that arise during the implementation of this very complex reform.
Finally, with an amendment of the Ministry of National Economy and Finances that will be submitted in the next few days, the penalties will be tightened on the companies that sell cash registers and terminal machines (POS) that will not upgrade their software until February 29, the day on which the interconnection deadline also expires of POS with cash registers for businesses.