International lenders say, as part of putting its financial house in order, Greece must make its farmers pay higher taxes and pay more into pension funds. The demands have ignited protests by farmers, and one farm leader, Christos Gontias, has called for an overhaul of agricultural supports in a country where farmers are revered and a political force. “He is taking on what has long been an open secret: Hundreds of thousands of Greeks, who have other professions and may cultivate very little of their land, claim to be farmers in order to cash in on a variety of tax breaks and farming subsidies,” reports the New York Times. Creditors are pressuring Greece to collect an additional $2.5 billion from the farm sector by raising taxes and eliminating privileges.
Gontias says farmers who make most of their income, at least 70 percent, from crops should be exempt from the proposed austerity measures. Now, people are counted as farmers if they get 35 percent from the land.
“The shift Mr. Gontias is talking about would be huge,” said the Times. “It would drop the number of people eligible for farming benefits to 150,000 from about 900,000, he said, and allow the state to collect more than $1.65 billion. His proposal has put him at odds with other farmers’ unions, but he shrugs this off.”