Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 13-08-21

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Greek Public Television broadcasts first live news programme

[02] Travel balance records a surplus in Jan.-June

[03] FinMin shutting down 14 island tax offices in consolidation move

[01] Greek Public Television broadcasts first live news programme

On Tuesday, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) said that it will stop broadcasting online the programme produced by former state broadcaster ERT staff, as of Wednesday morning (August 21), it announced on its website.

Following the shutdown of ERT by the government in June, EBU hosted the programme by staff refusing to leave the ERT premises in the northern suburb of Aghia Paraskevi.

According to the EBU, the decision to stop was taken following reports that ERT's temporary replacement, Greek Public Television, will start broadcasting news bulletins this week.

The Union said that from June 12 until today it had carried out 8.5 million live broadcasts in 4.4 million hours, with more than 2.5 million unique users watching ERT programmes through the internet, while EBU representatives visited Greece frequently to meet with government officials and express disagreement with ERT's closure.

Former employees occupying ERT's premises called on the Union's president "not to stop the broadcasting of ERT's signal and to keep it alive through EBU's satellites, as was the case until today".

[02] Travel balance records a surplus in Jan.-June

The central bank, in a report, said average spending per travel rose by 20.6 pct while tourist arrivals grew by 16.1 pct compared to the same month last year.

The report also said that the travel balance of payments in the January-June period recorded a surplus of 2.483 million euros, or an increase by 579 million euros (30.4 pct), from 1.904 million euros in the same period last year. In the six-month period, tourist arrivals were up 12.3 pct.

Travel proceeds in June increased by 20.6 pct, compared with the same month last year, reflecting a 10.6 pct rise in revenue from EU-27 and a 39 pct increase in revenue from other countries.

In the January-June period, travel proceeds rose by 17.8 pct, reflecting a 36.3 pct increase in revenue non-EU countries; revenues from EU-27 countries showed an incresae of 7.7 pct. Travel proceeds from Germany rose 17.8 pct to 542 million euros, from France they rose 30.7 pct and from the UK they dropped 10.9 pct. Revenue from Russia rose by 42 pct to 341 million euros, while proceeds from the US rose 25.4 pct to 186 million euros.

Incoming tourism totalled 2,373,000 in June, up 16.1 pct from the same month last year. Arrivals from Germany dropped 5.6 pct, from France they rose 17.6 pct and from the UK they fell by 7.2 pct. Arrivals from Russia grew by 51.6 pct and from the US they doubled, by 11.27 pct. In the six-month period from January to June, incoming tourism grew 12.3 pct to a total of 5,421,000 travellers.

[03] FinMin shutting down 14 island tax offices in consolidation move

The closures are the last of a series of stages in a plan to consolidate services that began in fulfillment of memorandum obligations by Greece to its lenders. The ministry said the original 290 offices operating in 2011 would be reduced to 120 within 2013.

The tax offices that are shutting down include those on the following islands: Andros, Egina, Kalymnos, Karpathos, Kea, Limnos, Milos, Poros, Skiathos, Skopelos, Spetses, Tinos and Hydra. The tax office of Aghios Kyrikos on Ikaria island will also be shut down.

According to the ministry, some of the functions of tax services have moved online at www.taxis.net, with more functions being added gradually. The ministry's target is to gradually do away with payments through tax offices and have them done through banks instead.

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