strapped government promised Monday to raise an additional €11.8 billion through 2013, with a crackdown on tax evasion. Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou announced the measures a year after his country was granted an international bailout loan package worth €110 billion from the European Union and International Monetary Fund to rescue it from the brink of default. Papaconstantinou said Greece was in talks with Swiss authorities to monitor Greek deposits – toward reaching an agreement similar to one existing between Britain and Switzerland. Other measures include creating a speedboat division of fraud inspectors, and appointing a former senior prosecutor who handled terrorism cases to assist with the tax collection effort. Debt inspectors, due in Athens this week, have warned that Greece needs to improve its tax system to end a weak run in state revenues that is threatening the country's fiscal rescue program “Tax evasion is a crime against the country,” Papaconstantinou said, noting that the measures include tougher penalties for bribing tax officials, a radical reorganization of the tax-office structure, and increased use of online tax services. “This is the first time ever that such a systematic effort has been undertaken,” the minister said. Meanwhile, EU economic affairs chief Olli Rehn warned Monday that debt restructuring for Greece is not part of Europe's strategy and would have “devastating” consequences, one year to the day from the international deal to bail out Athens. “Proponents of debt restructuring seem to ignore the potentially devastating consequences for the country itself (Greece) and the euro area as a whole,” European Union economic affairs commissioner Rehn said. “I repeat it is not part of our strategy,” he told financial policy-makers in Brussels at a conference looking at the European Union response to the financial crisis of the last 30 months. However, with the recession in Greece meaning its economy has not performed as well as hoped amid huge cuts in public spending, many financial experts are convinced Greece will have to restructure its public debts – pegged last week by the European Commission at some 330 billion euros. “Some people argue that the crisis management of the EU with regards to Greece ... is vague,” Rehn said. He insisted: “I disagree. ... The aim of our strategy has been first of all to prevent a repeat cardiac arrest in financial markets,” after the collapse of Lehmann Brothers bank in September 2008. “Secondly, we have been able to largely contain stress in sovereign financial markets to three more vulnerable nations,” Greece, Ireland and now Portugal. Greece's black economy is worth between 25 and 37 percent of the country's gross domestic product, according to estimates by the European Union and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
