ATHENS – While tax evasion remains rampant in Greece – where high tax rates push people to avoid paying and the rich duck their fortunes in secret foreign bank accounts – New Democracy government measures have cut into it.

That’s mostly in the Value Added Tax (VAT) category that saw Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis applauding a European Commission report showing that it has been almost in half under his administration.

“The incisive changes that some said ‘cannot be done in Greece,’ can in fact be done! This is proved in the European Commission’s latest CASE report on tax evasion, which notes that the public sector’s losses from VAT in our country are already down by 50% – at one of the fastest rates among the ‘27’ (EU Member States,) he posted on social media.l

Businesses are required to link cash registers with Point-of-Service (POS) terminals so that electronic transactions could be monitored and reduce handlings in cas and he said that, “The gains from this in 2022 alone are estimated at 3 billion euros!”

He added that means more money for social services although the VAT on food hasn’t been cut – he said there wasn’t enough money to do that – but added that “A battle that is primarily for social justice, as the funds secured will be directed towards health, education, security and national defense; crucial sectors that concern us all.”