The Greek government has promised to hike taxes to shipping companies in its latest proposal submitted to its euro zone creditors on Thursday, Reuters reports.
The latest debt restructuring proposal comes as Greece struggles to avoid bankruptcy having defaulted on its USD 1.7 bln debt to the International Monetary Fond that led to a range of capital control measures as the country had ran out of Euro.
Under the latest proposal, Greece is asking for a USD 59 billion loan to refinance its debt until 2018 in turn for tax hikes to tourism and shipping sector. Additional measures include defense spending cuts, privatization of state assets including the port of Piraeus and regional airports.
The chairman of Eurogroup finance ministers confirmed receiving the documents but refused to comment before an assessment of the proposal was made. The country’s government is to determine today a list of priority actions to be made before any funds get approved, according to Reuters.
As World Maritime News reported earlier,  Greece had already made the first steps in this direction with a proposal to implement an effective taxation framework for commercial shipping and increase the tonnage tax prior to the referendum on austerity measures that took place on July 5th.
Based on the system currently in place, the shipping companies are enjoying lucrative tax breaks which allow them to pay a voluntary amount, all with the aim of keeping owners in Greece. These include no taxes on profits from shipping operations, and no taxes on ship sales.
Greek owners make up 20 % stake in the global commercial shipping fleet and the industry has been a major profit source for the country as it makes up 7.5 % of the Greek’s economy.
Fears have been raised by the Greek shipowners union that should the tax hike move forward ship owners would flee the country and move somewhere else.
World Maritime News Staff
-Source: worldmaritimenews.com