Voluntary offer of ship-owners: The chronicle of a foretold fiasco

"At this difficult juncture for the country, I want to thank wholeheartedly the Greek ship-owners for this voluntary contribution to the budget and the national effort" stated on July 18, 2013 Antonis Samaras, featuring "patriotism force" of the Greek ship-owners.

But a year later, the demagogic campaign which was mobilized to convince the -financially drained-, Greek people that the "sacred cows" of fiscal protectionism offer a donation, has collapsed.

What happened in these twelve months, are revealing of the intentions of the majority of Greek ship-owners, who prefer to pay crumbs to the state, the same time that they reap enormous amounts profits.

The signs of the impending fiasco were obvious from the beginning. Before the "catalyst" intervention of the Prime Minister, the Minister of Shipping, Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, was forced to give an extension to the deadline for registration to the relevant list, the names of the ship-owners who would contribute voluntarily, as the consultations on the issue had started earlier. The deadline for making such statements was on June 28, 2013 and was extended until July 12. Again, however, the results were disappointing.

In early August, after the Covenant had been signed, famous names of Greek ship-owning had not responded, according to the press.
Obviously, the situation did not improve in the coming months, and in December 2013, the government's legislation gave mandatory character in the "voluntary offer" of the shipowners. And then the chaos came...

The reactions, official and unofficial, were fierce. Manifestos of unconstitutionality, threats to abandon the Greek flag and fleeing ships and companies abroad, the Greek ship-owners have used every means to exert pressure on the government and take back the measure.

Ongoing meetings took place at the Ministry of Finance since January, to calm the ship-owners. Then they asked from Antonis Samaras to restore the "flagrant constitutional rights violation" and they keep waiting, -meaning that they still do not pay the contribution-, up to clarify the issue.

At the end of April, comes the official response from the Ministry of Finance to a question from the "Newspaper of Journalists", that "the relevant provisions are not yet implemented in their entirety, because they encountered technical difficulties, especially in integration of the electronic applications, which are treated rapidly." The concept of "fast" seems relevant, after so many months the government still had not received half "voluntary" euro, while when it comes to extraordinary contributions of employees and pensioners, the procedures are completed fast.

In June, the Administrative Court of Appeal of Piraeus rejected the appeals of the shipping companies against the compulsory levy on the ground that 'the extraordinary contribution of social responsibility" imposed on profits of shipping business, is part of a series of fiscal measures, among which are the "extraordinary contributions" under the law 3845/10 and earlier, to meet the criteria of financial discipline.

The fiasco, however, has not yet been completed. Despite the decision of justice, that paved the way for the government to collect the contribution of ship-owners, the ship owners had not said their last word, through the Minister of Marine, this time. On July 11, Mr. Varvitsiotis with his statements heralded the "tipper", within 2014, of the notorious "voluntary taxation" and other taxes, as well as they "make the Greek ship, unprofitable"!

"The Finance Ministry has proceeded to a taxing of Greek shipping (...), something that we had decided with the maritime community through the process of arbitration agreements, namely the tripling of the tax which is paid by ship-owners for the next three years. We went to a tripling and there are other tax regulations, which currently make the Greek ship unprofitable. We want to change this dimension", stated among others.

Recall that the "unprofitable Greek ship" brought in the first place the Greek ship-owners, according to the report of firm Clarkson, published in May...
The arbitration agreement had provided that the Greek ship-owners would pay around EUR 400 million in three years.

The issue here is that it is proved once again that the government is faced the Greek citizens with double standards. When the Greek ship-owners shout "we do not pay" the government supports them, but when those who really affected by the ongoing austerity shout that "we do not pay", the government is pointing to the prerequisites and memorandum's obligations...