Annual fee for independent business owners ends as of Jan 1, revised GDP adds €5 bln to revenues

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The special fee for all independent business owners and freelancers as of January 1, 2025 and the upward revision of Greek economy data by the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) and Eurostat were the leading points of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ weekly review posted on Facebook on Sunday.

Mitsotakis referred to the previously announced abolishment of the annual fee (‘telos epitidevmatos’) as of January 1, and said it would include all individual business owners, as well as the nearly 25,000 freelancers (‘blokakia’).

The ELSTAT and Eurostat revisions are showing that Greece’s GDP in 2023 rose by 2.3% instead of 2% as initially assessed, an increase corresponding to another 5 billion euros, he noted.

Speaking of the health sector, the premier referred to the ‘PROLAMVANO’ prevention program – the first organized prevention program in Greece – that relates to colorectal cancer and cervical cancer. He revealed that a total of 1,461,570 prescriptions had been issued to qualifying citizens for self-tests on colorectal cancer, provided for free by pharmacies.

Commenting on recently discovered phenomena of some doctors with “unacceptable illegal overprescriptions” of medication, he said that these wasted a large amoung of public funding and burdened both the health system and tax payers. “These doctors are a minority” that the state has the tools to identify, while he warned that “such practices are not tolerated and will not be tolerated.”

Mitsotakis also noted that a decision already signed will invite applications for 298 openings at the National Health System for doctors of several specialties and levels, who will be hired at hospitals throughout Greece and at the EKAV emergency ambulance service. In the case of EKAV, most openings relate to emergency room staff in hospitals of Attica and in Piraeus.

Among other issues, the premier also mentioned the dispersed responsibilities between government services of following up on whether private cars have actually carried out required annual inspections, paid the annual road tax, and been insured or whether they have been withdrawn from circulation. Prompted by Greece’s record as a country with the worst traffic accident rates in Europe, the changes will allow all related agencies to communicate digitally for an effective supervision framework in road safety, Mitsotakis underlined.

Source: ANA – MPA

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