"The emergency fee is anti-constitutional"

The emergency fee proposal is against constitutional edicts concerning back-taxing (article 78 paragraph 2) and taxation equality (article 4).

The above is what Councilman I. Gravaris is going to support in his argument before the second section of of the Domain Council the following Wednesday. He will underline the fact that these measures are violating article 4 of the Hellenic Constitution  on tariff equality because they do not take into account Public Legal Persons, for no reason whatsoever.

According to the measures, 128,000 taxable persons with a yearly personal income amounting to over 60,000 euros in 2007 must be levied with an amount ranging from 1,000 to 25,000 euros as an one-off or in installments. This measure was taken under the New Democracy administration in an effort to maximize public revenue.

Mr. Gravari's proposal on the anti-constitutionality of the measure goes against a former decision taken by the plenum of the Domain Council. If the proposal is accepted by the second subsection of the Council, it will then be moved up to the plenum.

It is noteworthye that the Administrative Appeals Office of Athens has concluded that the measure of the emergency fee is both constitutional and legal. On the contrary, the Court of First Instance has judged that the measures go against the constitution.