In Brief
Greece’s OTEGlobe signs deals with Turk Telekom Greece’s OTE telecoms announced yesterday that one of its subsidiaries had signed a deal to increase Turk Telecom’s capacity and bandwidth to western Europe and the United States. OTE subsidiary OTEGlobe said that Turk Telecom’s connection had been increased to 25Gbps from 5Gbps. The two operators are connected through a fiber-optic network. The agreement is the second between the two operators, and no financial details were disclosed. (AP) EU takes legal step against Greece’s used car taxes BRUSSELS – Car registration taxes in Greece, Poland and the Netherlands are against European Union rules, the European Commission said yesterday as it began legal steps against the three EU states. The problem in Greece is the way Athens calculates registration taxes for second-hand cars imported into the country. The Commission said the Greek rules did not ensure that the registration tax does not exceed the current tax rate on a car of the same age that had been registered in Greece when it was new. (Reuters) Autoland in Thessaloniki Cars and their industries will have a special exhibition section devoted to them in this September’s Thessaloniki International Fair, by public demand, titled Autoland. Alongside this car salon will be a section dedicated to 4×4 cars as well as special exhibitions with cars and motorcycles. «Autoland will be a unique experience for this year’s fair, offering significant interactive events, spectacles and special offers,» promised organizing company HELEXPO’s president Aristotelis Thomopoulos. Fuel taxes The government will announce the fuel tax measures in full, including the tax return methods, by the end of July, Deputy Development Minister Giorgos Salagoudis confirmed again yesterday. He repeated that no farmer or household will pay anything more than they have to with the measures harmonizing tax for heating oil with that of automotive diesel to avoid illegal fuel trade. Piraeus Bank Piraeus Bank said yesterday it increased its stake in Egyptian Commercial Bank (ECB) to 79.7 percent from 69.3 percent, buying the shares on the Cairo stock exchange. ECB has a network of 18 branches and total assets of 437 million euros in 2004. (Reuters) Bonds The volume of Greek government debt traded on the central bank’s electronic system (HDAT) rose to 61.6 billion euros in June from 45.3 billion in May and compared to 80.5 billion in June 2004, the Bank of Greece said.
