A hated 100 percent property tax surcharge put into electric bills by former finance minister Evangelos Venizelos, now the head of the PASOK Socialists, will keep being collected, despite a court order ruling it’s illegal, Greek government officials said.
Venizelos, who also doubled income taxes and taxed the poor, ordered the doubled property tax be put into utility bills on the threat of power being turned off if it wasn’t paid, setting off a fury of protest.
Despite a recent court ruling declaring the practice unlawful, Finance Minister Yiannis Stournaras send the utility company management a letter instructing officials to keep doing it as Greece is desperate for cash and about to assess another $17.45 billion in spending cuts and more tax hikes aimed primarily at workers, pensioners, the poor and those who have no recourse but to pay while tax evaders continue to largely escape sacrifice.
As a result the third, fourth and fifth installments of the tax will be attached to electricity bills and sent to homeowners by March next year, the officials said. Those who do not pay the levy will have it transferred to their tax office which will collect it instead, the sources added, noting that in any case PPC would not cut the power supply of property owners even if they didn’t pay. The company said it would also increase electric bills up to 30 percent next year.
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