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Victoria Mindova

A twenty four hours strike will start the owners of the small kiosks and newspapers stands on Tuesday, March 2^nd. The small traders who sell newspapers, cigarettes and other small goods will protest against the tax reform of the socialistic government.

The federation of the owners of kiosks made an official announcement in the end of last week by which they ask all the traders from the industry to unite in a common protest against the new changes in the taxation. The small traders are particularly unhappy with the excise duty on the cigarettes. This will decrease their profit and will push them in the corner. The introduction of the cash registers in all commercial sites including the small kiosks and small shops is also not very welcomed by the owners of pavilions. “We mainly sell cigarettes and draft tobacco. There is a small decrease in the level of sales since the summer last year after the ban for smoking in public places was introduced, however we are Greeks after all and nobody observes it,” said the owner of a small newspapers stand. He explained that the big problem comes from the increase in the production prices and the indirect tax. With the present legal framework, currently a trader makes about 0,23 euro from the sale of a pack of cigarettes and with the introduction of the new changes this profit will decrease to 0,15 euro. The decrease in profit makes it very difficult on the trader to survive.

After a research of GRreporter it became clear that the appeal for a strike has obviously not reached to all the owners of kiosks. Many of the people interviewed did no know about the 24 hours strike and heard about it for the first time. “I didn’t know they announced a strike,” says the owner of a stand in the center of Athens. The small trader explained that if he opens his shop in the day of the protests there is a great chance that people will think of him as a traitor and even attack him. “If everybody goes on strike so will I,” he said with some resignation.
Then he explained: “We do not make so much money to afford and miss a whole day of work. Whatever changes they want – they will introduce them (he means the government), and we will only lose our time and our payment for the day.”

From the Federation of the owners of kiosks they announced they want the ministry to provide a “legal definition” of the value of their profit from the sale of tobacco products. The suggestion implies that not less than 8,2% of the value of each pack of cigarettes being sold to enter in the pocket of the small trader.