How they will milk 6bil euros in one month!

VAT and customs 3,5bil, car fees 1,2bil, completion 700mil, major real estate 300mil. and there’s more…

It’s a full-on race for the ministry of Finance to collect the 6bil euros missing from the 2010 “fund” at the very last minute, so that the government won’t seem inconsistent to its commitment to the Troika a couple of weeks ago.

At the regular meeting Monday night at the ministry of Finance under vice minister Dimitris Kouselas, the aim seemed feasible provided all the governmental “weapons” thrown into the fight for revenue work well.

They bet a lot on completion, which supplied 700mil euros in November and is expected to do the same in December due to the extension given, but on the 1st payment too, by those who entered the program last month.  

For this reason, as protothema.gr has revealed, it is possible that the 150,000 owners who didn’t make the cut due to their real estate will now enter the regulation too. It’s calculated that after their entry, and if minister Giorgos Papakonstantinou gives the green light, the government will pocket 300mil euros, at least from those who can justify their income.

The economic team are optimistic about the fact that they can collect 3,5bil euros from VAT, customs and attributable taxes since something similar happened in November, while December is traditionally a good month due to the occasional holiday traffic.

And this is why the SDOE auditors were mobilized, to “man positions” in the market and avoid incidents of tax evasion. They will target the retail trade, but also all kinds of activities at tourist destinations relating to these holidays.

The surprise, however, is expected to come from the traffic fees of 2011, since they are estimated at about 1,2bil instead of the 1,3 budgeted last December, or even higher after the elimination of the exorbitant “Souflias fees” that made thousands of car owners return their license plates.