Cabbies renege on promise
Taxi drivers from Athens and Piraeus on Saturday agreed not to order registers that issue customer receipts, which they had last month promised the Finance Ministry they would have installed in their vehicles by January 1. Members of the Association of Attica Taxi Drivers (SATA) arrived at the unanimous decision during a general assembly meeting coinciding with 24-hour strike action in protest against the registers. At the beginning of this month, SATA had requested a year’s extension on the government’s deadline for installing the registers. But on Saturday unionists claimed that the reason for the decision (a measure designed to crack down on tax evasion while discouraging widespread overcharging) had not been adequately argued by the ministry and warned of escalating protests if further talks fail to yield a compromise. New Democracy MP Katerina Papacosta, who attended yesterday’s meeting, said ND opposed the installation of the registers, noting that they are not used in the rest of Europe and backing SATA’s proposal to use simple printers.
