Papandreou Approves New Taxes, Cuts to Elude Greek Default
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Prime Minister George Papandreou, who vowed yesterday to avoid a default and keep Greece in the euro, approved new emergency measures to plug a yawning budget gap as resistance builds to extending more aid to the European Union’s most-indebted nation.
The Cabinet plans to cut one month’s wages from all elected officials and impose an annual charge on all property for two years, to be levied through electricity bills to ensure rapid collection, Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos told reporters in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki today.