Greek Tourism Minister: V.A.T. in Restaurants/Catering to Decrease in 2013

Posted by keeptalkinggreece

One by one the governments’ pre-elections promises vanish in the air under the sober reality of yawning state cash registers. The Value Added Tax in the restaurants and other catering businesses will be decreased from 23% down to 13% not this year but … next year. So said Greek Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni on Monday.

“The VAT decrease will be valid as of 2013, as the conditions do not allow the government to proceed to decrease from 23% to 13% in the current year.”
At the same time, the minister underlined the need that all together should try to change the image of Greece abroad. ” Tourists get directly influenced by the general situation but also from the image of the country. ”They check the security and social peace. We all must try for a social peace, ” Olga Kefalogianni said. (zougla.gr)

I assume, Kefalogianni did not say all these nice things about the common struggle for a social peace to the more than 1.1 million jobless and the some 2.5 million low-pensioners awaiting for the additional austerity measures.
I remember this friend of mine working as accountant at a hotel on a Greek island telling me right after Samaras coalition government came to power that the tourism sector was eagerly awaiting for the VAT decrease and that the government was already late in putting its promised into practice. If Dimitris ever sees the VAT decreasing he can directly-mail me the good news…

This is not a huge souvlaki, it’s the giant VAT
PS I wonder why the bill for enjoying souvlaki, gyros and other delicacies at the neighbourhood Grill went up at 3-4 euro last month, when the VATremained the same. Sorry I forgot: most probably, there is a 13% VAT when you take it away and 23% when you eat seated. But this weird VAT calculation was implemented last year. Why did the prices went up again last month?