Marinakis: Government has no plans to raise taxation rates

An increase in tax rates is definitely not in the government’s plans, government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis stressed in statements to SKAI radio on Thursday. He had been asked to clarify whether new taxes will be imposed on one-person businesses. “As in the previous four-year term, the government is here to increase the citizens’ incomes, either directly or indirectly,” he said, while highlighting the prime minister’s announcements about tackling tax evasion and the concealment of income, in order to generate additional revenues.

This will be achieved by the measures announced by the prime minister and by Economy and Finance Minister Kostis Hatzidakis, he added, such as linking cash registers with POS machines, expanding the use of electronic money, forbidding property transfers using cash and other measures.

On the recent natural disasters, Marinakis said that the prime minister had visited the affected areas many times and that this was one of the key issues of concern for him, on which he was engaged in constant meetings and communication with those responsible for managing the state response.

“The prime minister’s main goal and main priority are the maximum efficiency of rescue operations and an immediate recovery, that after this phenomenon the recovery process in the affected areas proceeds very rapidly,” he said. Concluding the radio interview, Marinakis denied that the government had plans for “naturalisations” as a way to deal with a shortage of labour and said that guarding the borders while protecting and respecting human rights remains high on the agenda, including by extending the fence on the Evros border.

He said the government had a comprehensive policy for dealing with the labour shortage, which included allowing pensioners to work without cutting their pensions, allowing people to work second jobs and other measures.