Athens News Agency: News in English, 10-06-18

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Samaras sternly attacks gov't

[02] FinMin on tax evasion

[01] Samaras sternly attacks gov't

"PASOK cannot lead the country out of the crisis after asserting before the general elections that 'there is money' and then after the election voting for the memorandum which leads Greece in a vicious circle of ever-larger deficits, recession and even harsher austerity measures" stressed Samaras, adding that the government's policy had succeeded in raising the inflation rate and making unemployment skyrocket.

He pointed to the postive aspects of ND's term in government, highlighting the Burgas - Alexadroupolis pipeline agreement whose value Prime Minister George Papandreou had been questioned before the elections and was now attacking again.

Samaras also referred to ND government's agreement with China's Cosco on the ports and the merger of social security funds from 130 to 13.

"We made mistakes" he said, "but we also left positive work.

Samaras underlined that ND is showing a different way not only for the economy but also for migrants' and foreign policy and reiterated his position that in major national issues it is wrong for Greece to get involved in negotiations in a moment of weakness.

On labour issues he said that ND was not opposed to a flexible labour market but only under conditions that created a powerful social safety net and were combined with an economic recovery that would make the measures less painful for society.

"What we need are social liberalism's fresh ideas," said Samaras and once again criticised the government for abolishing the merchant marine and tourism ministries, stressing that these were "two very important sectors in which Greece has competitive advantages".

[02] FinMin on tax evasion

Papaconstantinou noted a substantial improvement in the effort thus far, compared with last year, and cited figures that 6,000 complaints over tax evasion have been submitted to the SDOE in the first five months of the year compared with barely 4,000 throughout all of last year (2009).

Further, the SDOE has confirmed fines of 1.5 billion euros for tax evasion in the first five months of 2010, compared with 700 million euros in all of 2009.

"Our aim is to restore justice," the minister said, and intimated at intensification of audits and inspections in the coming period to clamp down on tax evasion.

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