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French President Nicolas Sarkozy studies...
French President Nicolas Sarkozy studies the Greek flag as he waits to address Parliament during a one-day official visit to Athens... |
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EDITORIAL |
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Curbing persistent tax evasion
The most provocative display of dereliction on behalf of the state mechanism concerns the collection of state revenues.
The government, on the one hand, boasts that Greece has the highest growth index in the 15-country eurozone, while, on the other, we hear it lament every month about disappointingly low tax revenues and growing tax evasion.
Who is to blame for this inexcusable leakage of state revenues? Obviously it is the government itself, because it has failed to put together an efficient tax system and gives a free rein to corrupt tax officials to make deals with dodgers. |
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COMMENTARY |
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Gov’t to blame for rising prices
Rising prices, Development Minister Christos Folias, cannot be combated by 41 or 141 regulations that end up accomplishing the exact opposite of the desired result because the red tape they create increases the cost of product distribution on the one hand and, on the other, increases the opportunities for corruption and exchanges between monitoring authorities and businesses.
Greece has experienced entire decades of market regulation and the only result it saw was inflation above 20 percent, a strong black market and product shortages.
Mr Folias, consumers, traders and manufacturers are laughing at the measures you are implementing. They view them as irrelevant and ineffective and I wonder that you - a man who comes from the world of private initiative - have forgotten the biggest lesson that history has taught us: that only deregulation and robust competition can bring down prices and improve product quality. |
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