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Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras announced cuts on Saturday to unpopular taxes introduced at the height of Greece's debt crisis, in a bid to show that over four years of austerity are finally nearing an end.Samaras, whose conservative party trails the anti-austerity, radical leftist Syriza party in opinion polls, said a heating oil consumption tax would be cut by 30 percent and a "solidarity tax" would also be reduced.
Speaking in the northern port of Thessaloniki at an annual trade fair where Greek prime ministers traditionally set out their economic policy for the coming year, Mr. Samaras announced a 30 percent cut to a tax on heating oil. That levy, which was introduced in 2012, raised the tax on heating oil 450 percent. But it has failed to bring in additional revenue and has led to environmental damage as Greeks turned to burning wood for heat.
Alternate Finance Minister Christos Staikouras admitted in a written statement on Wednesday that the harmonization of the special consumption tax on heating oil with that on fuel for vehicles has proven to be financially ineffective and socially unjust.The measure, adopted in November 2011, has not led to an increase in state revenues or succeeded in combating illegal trade, the statement added, but has added to the burden on lower-income groups as well as environmental pollution.Staikouras clarified that with the 30 percent reduction in the special consumption tax... along with the heating oil allowance which will continue to be distributed this year, the average price of heating oil for consumers will amount to no more than 0.80 euros per liter. That will be 23.4 percent less than the price in April 2012, which had averaged 1.045 euros/lt.For those not entitled to an allowance, the average retail price of heating oil will come to 1.150 euros, compared with 1.259 euros in April 2014.
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Topic: Heating oil: 30% tax cut (Read 7401 times)
