Embattled Greece to overhaul tax system

[December 18, 2009]  ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou says the country's tax system will be overhauled by early March to broaden the tax base, boost revenues and fight tax evasion as part of efforts to pull Greece out of an economic crisis.

Athens is facing its worst debt crisis in decades. It has come under intense European Union pressure to straighten out its finances and comply with deficit limits intended to support the shared euro currency.

The government announced a raft of measures this week to reduce Greece's mountain of public debt, which has reached euro300 billion ($440 billion) public debt, by 2012 and gradually bring the budget deficit -- projected at 12.7 percent for 2009 -- to below the European Union's euro-zone requirement of 3 percent of GDP by the end of 2013.

[Associated Press]

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