Ship-owners: They owe millions in pension funds

Greek ship-owners owe more than 100 million Euros to NAT, KEAN and Welfare Funds of seafarers in accordance with the information provided to Parliament by the Minister of Labor and Social Insurance , John Vroutsis after question had testified Members of the Communist Party Thanassis Pafilis, Christos Katsotis and Nikos Karathanasopoulos.
Specifically, from the document of Mr. Vroutsi arises that the data have been sent for confirmation to the competent tax office for amounts due to NAT, KEAN and Welfare Funds of seafarers:

• From debts for domestic ships: 35,022,675.39 Euros
• From debts for seagoing ships: 17,891,324.98 Euros
• From debts owed to Capital Insurance and Passenger Vehicles: 48,151,651.78 Euros
TOTAL: 101,065,652.15 Euros

The Labor Minister, in his reply, says that those amounts are the original ones, because there are ongoing arrangements of several debts to the Fund, payments are taking place on DOY (either single - or setting) and the responsible service of NAT is progressively updated. Mr. Vroutsis notes that NAT has made all the provisions of the legislation enforcement measures, such as detention of the ship, forced seizure by the competent tax office, lawsuit, and announcements on carried auctions.

While ship-owners owe to the funds and make arrangements, seafarers have suffered an increase on their taxes by 300 % from 2012 until today, their retirement age increased by two years, their pensions were reduced by 50% and unemployment in the sector jumped to historical record, highlighted by Members of the Communist Party in their relative question. Also, ship-owners are pushing for repeal of collective bargaining agreements of seamen, in order them "to be converted into modern slaves in ships and to further increase the already mad profitability of shipping business."

However, the question of the Members of the Communist Party, which was also addressed to the Ministers of Finance and Shipping, put another four important issues:
• How much the ship-owners have paid for taxes in 2013 for ships with Greek flag first class of Law 27/1975, and for second-class vessels over 500 GRT of that law ?
• How many shipping companies and what amount they have paid in 2013 under the "arbitration pact for voluntary taxation of ship-owners"?
• What are the tax revenues from offshore shipping companies in Greece from 2009 to 2013?

• What are the proven and outstanding debts of the ship-owners to the tax office of Piraeus?

These responses are pending, perhaps because it would demonstrate the shocking, favorable treatment of Greek ship-owners, which allowed them to reap huge profits during the crisis period. Profits that now are reinvested in the purchase of new and used boats or in the exploiting of unique land estates to build luxury hotels. On the other hand, they complain that "their constitutional rights are threatened," as they say, because they were asked to contribute a little more in tax revenue.