Registers to record everyone
The government is undertaking the challenge of recording all that exists in both the public and private sectors. Three separate electronic registers will be created that will allow for the optimum monitoring of public expenditure with the aim of reducing tax evasion. The registers will include all citizens, entrepreneurs, enterprises, public bodies and corporations. The entire effort will be monitored by the prime minister’s office, while the deputy prime minister’s office has undertaken the coordination of the data location procedure. Of course, a key element will be the roles of both the Interior and the Finance ministries. The three registers will be: the Population Register, to include all of the country’s citizens as well as Greeks who work abroad; the Legal Entities Register, with all corporations controlled by the state or funded by the public coffers, with the private-sector corporations to follow; and the Property Register, which will initially contain all real estate properties and then cars, boats etc, originally based on the data from the Single Property Tax. The more optimistic in government circles are also considering the inclusion on this register of other property, such as bank deposits, securities etc. What triggered the creation of these registers was the complete absence of any central monitoring of the corporations controlled directly or indirectly by the state. Critics of the plan, who doubt the state’s capacity to manage the volume of all this data, suggest that problems may arise as regards overstepping democratic freedoms.
