An unfair measure
In the end, Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis and PASOK leader George Papandreou both yielded to the temptation of vote-grabbing proposals. A week shy of the national elections, the two mainstream parties announced handouts in the form of tax-breaks or income boosters. Politics of this kind does nothing to promote our political culture. Greece’s political system is still based on strong patron-client ties. New Democracy’s decision to abolish the property inheritance tax is right on principle, as it takes into account the country’s closely knit family structure. But any tax reduction should have been scaled so as to benefit a large number of people by easing the tax burden on owners of small and medium-sized properties. Unfortunately, the Economy Ministry that drafted the measure fell short of introducing a ceiling. The blanket reduction in the inheritance tax to just 1 percent mainly benefits big property owners. The prime minister ought to take back a measure that benefits just a small minority.
