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Anastasia Balezdrova

The Greek government's decision to impose an extra tax on property in Greece caused sharp public response. Property owners will have to pay from half to ten euros per square metre of built-up area, depending on the market prices in each location.

The tax will apply this and next year and will be paid through electricity bills. The government tries to secure its payment, because if you do not pay the tax you will have to learn to live in the dark.

GRReporter contacted the President of the Panhellenic Federation of Property Owners Stavros Paradias to comment the situation.

"I would definitely say that the Greek family is unable to pay this tax along with the others, which were voted on. I'm talking mostly about property taxes, the unified and extraordinary tax for the period 2009 - 2011, the values of which ​​are different each year, depending on the size of each property. To this, we should add the fact that these properties are not used for professional purposes in most cases, they have no tenants or are used by their owners, i.e. they do not bring any profit. The government should not be so certain that the owners would be able to pay all these amounts."

According to Stavros Paradias, this extra tax is a robbery by the government, which relies on the fact that property in Greece is widely spread.

"Taxes are too many. This is not real taxation but robbery of property. We're talking about 20 taxes divided into 40 different forms, affecting the capital if we could talk about this and what is left of the revenue from it."

Stavros Paradias believes that the tax should not be imposed on buildings that are not used or their tenants have left them. "We think it is abundantly clear that this tax will not be imposed on properties that do not produce revenue for their owners. The property free from tenants is already well above 25 per cent."

The calculation of the tax is not yet clear. According to sources from the Ministry of Finance, the amount will be determined on the base of the square metres submitted to the electricity company. They argue that the tax will be imposed only on electrified buildings and the amount will drop depending on their age.

So far, the office has not decided whether the owners of shops, offices and other professional facilities will pay extra tax. Not rented church property and buildings used by charities, sports clubs and others will be exempt from the extra tax. The amount is expected to be lower for the unemployed, people with very low income and disabled who pay lower bills for electricity.

The imposition of a new burden on the shoulders of the Greek taxpayers caused responses by the infamous trade unionists at the power corporation DEI, who said the government should ensure that there would be no blackouts for people who do not pay this tax. "Otherwise, we will prevent the issuing of bills and will not obey orders to cut the electricity," said the union president and outspoken member of the ruling party Nikos Fotopoulos.

The Greek government approved the decision on imposing the extra tax during a special meeting of the Ministerial Council in Thessaloniki. While the Greeks were expecting the traditional press conference of the Prime Minister, which began with a three hours delay, the government negotiated with the supervisory Troika. Throughout the past week, the creditors pressed George Papandreou and his ministers to take actions, but instead to "chop" the large public sector, they chose to impose another tax.

The pressure upon Athens, however, continues. After his meeting with Angela Merkel, the President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso stressed again that there would be aid only for the countries that make every effort to improve all the wrong things. The President of the European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet also said that all European leaders urge Greece to fulfill its promises of reform.

Strict warnings are coming from Berlin although the Minister of Economics Philipp Rösler softened his statement that "the failure of Greece is not a taboo." The Ministry spokesman said the aim is to keep Greece in the euro area, and that the issue of bankruptcy is not yet on the agenda. Although the European institutions have not adopted any procedures for such a possibility so far, the German government spokesman Steffen Seibert urged Athens to meet its obligations with accuracy and added that otherwise the next tranche of the bailout would not be paid. He said that that they are optimistic that Greece will continue to implement the program accurately, but did not name the possible consequences if this does not happen. However, the European Commission spokesman Amadeu Alfataj stated that Europe does not develop a scenario that includes the bankruptcy of Greece.

Especially critical to the Greek government is the German press. Sueddeutsche Zeitung wrote that the indecisive Papandreou did not dare to make long-term structural reforms. Therefore, he does not work exactly in the foundations of the reforms, which are needed for the future of the broken country.

At the same time, the spread of the Greek ten-year bonds exceeded the record 2038.4 bps. The Athens Stock Exchange plunged down again today, when the indicator was 4.4 per cent lower than last Friday. A decline in the euro value of against the yen was recorded, which hit a record low for a period of ten years of its existence. Markets are buzzing that Germany is tired of supporting Greece and a decline in the euro to USD ratio was reported because of these rumours.