Αθήνα, 15 Δεκεμβρίου 2020
ΔΕΛΤΙΟ ΤΥΠΟΥ
Distinguished guests, Ladies, and Gentlemen.
I am honored to participate in this years’ congress, especially since 2020 has really been a year full of new and at times painful challenges, harsh realities and, definitely, learning experiences for us all.
The COVID-19 crisis came abruptly and forcefully to test our strength, our stamina, our strategies, our values, beliefs, and practices as well. It came to test our knowledge, our preparedness for the future. But above all to test our abilities to adjust and adapt, in order to survive and serve, while enforcing the changes required.
We are called to plan, manage, operate in a world plagued by the pandemic and a global economy in crisis.
Parameters as such, dictate the setting of new strategic priorities and needs for continuous adjustments, in order to stay the course, to serve public interest and society effectively.
In the Independent Authority for Public Revenue, the pandemic found us already in an effort of continuous transition to change, both in our institutional culture and in terms of an array of services that were being added to our digital transformation planning.
Managing through a crisis and staying in course requires, besides agile strategic management, a healthy, high-spirited, and dedicated staff, in order to serve the taxpaying citizens and perform most effectively our duties as an organization.
Immediately with the first lockdown in March, we took measures to secure the above. Measures such as:
- Passing the message of the Ministry of Health to all citizens’ e-mails, on COVID-19 and its potential risks, a few days before the first lockdown
- Setting up the framework for remote working and working in shifts
- Issuing guidelines for remote taxpayer service. Email or telephone services became the preferred method of contact with on-site visits only happening on an appointment basis
- Buying protective masks, antiseptic liquids and infra-red forehead thermometers for all our services and protective equipment, such as uniforms for our customs officers
- Extending the working hours of our local tax offices, in order to accommodate, with safety, more requests and appointments with taxpayers
- Donating of 125 tons of confiscated ethyl alcohol, for production of antiseptic liquids, at the beginning of the pandemic, when market was short on antiseptics
Also, we took immediate action in order to implement measures adopted by the Government for the financial support of citizens and businesses affected by the pandemic. Highlighting the most important ones:
- We set up a digital platform, called myBusinessSupport, which has received and processed applications for granting of financial support to businesses. Though that platform, more that 6 billion € have been granted to almost 700.000 businesses, by effecting more than 1,2 M payments to their bank accounts, without a single visit to our tax offices
- We set up a digital service for granting tax credit to property owners that by law or contract reduced the monthly rent received by tenants affected by the pandemic. So far, almost 240.000 property owners received tax credits amounting to approximately 43 M €.
Apart from implementing COVID related measures, the pandemic has served as an accelerator of all our efforts.
We prioritized our array of services regarding taxpaying citizens and businesses. We focused on making things, processes much simpler. We focused in assisting both businesses and citizens.
We further accelerated tax returns, reaching an amount of 5 bn € over the course of 11 months, which is 700 M € higher than 2019 and 18% above the set target, giving thus necessary liquidity injections to the market.
Regarding the taxpaying citizen, we introduced new digital services and simplified bureaucracy.
To name our most important new services, we introduced:
- Taxpayer service via video-conference appointment. We call it myAADElive. Currently, it serves in giving to taxpayers credential activation keys to the digital services of the public sector. In a few days, it will be also serving issuance of Tax Identification Number to new taxpayers. We estimate than more than 500.000 yearly visits to our tax offices will be avoided.
- We also made possible the granting of credential activation keys through verification of mobile phone account subscriber, via a web service that we set up with mobile phone providers and banks. Taxpayers identified through this process received their credentials their mail and mobile phone, without needing to visit our tax offices
- Digital Bookkeeping and electronic invoicing is the new reality of our relationship with businesses. We launched the platform called my Digital Accounting and Tax Application (myData). myDATA can receive data on business transactions through electronic invoicing service providers, ERPs, Online and Virtual CashRegisters. We certified 6 electronic invoicing service providers. So far, we have received more that 1,2 M invoices by more that 31.000 businesses. Currently, we are also perfecting an application that will allow smaller businesses to digitally issue and transmit to our database their invoices through our platform.
- myTaxisnet, our e-service portal, now supports online notifications. More than 400.000 documents produced by our tax offices have been notified digitally to taxpayers
- myTaxisnet now supports payment of settlement scheme installments by card. Payments made this way are credited instantly to the installments
- Backdated Tax Clearance Certificate has been introduced, to facilitate participation in public procurements
Upcoming:
- New online service is under development to allow to put out of circulation vehicles and to return them to circulation digitally, thus abolishing current obsolete system requiring to submit the licence plates to our tax offices (currently resulting in 630,000 office visits per year)
- A new portal to manage online appointment booking and digital submission of claims to our tax offices put, that will replace the current system of communication via e-mail
We can now safely claim, and I am proud to say that we are the most digitalized service of the Greek public sector.
PLANNING BEYOND THE PANDEMIC CRISIS
Each crisis presents an opportunity for change.
Managing change is a great leap forward. A leap of evolution, an act for survival, to envisage and reach the day beyond the crisis and above all to be in a more advantageous position than before.
From the first moment of the covid-19 pandemic, besides the current and urgent needs, that were constantly emerging, we strongly felt that we had also to persist in our strategic planning and goals as they were set out, in order to see IAPR as we want it after the crisis. Beginning 2021, we are planning to focus on
Enhancing Taxation compliance and responsibility
via the implementation of better targeting of tax audits, specialized punctuality profiling, through a new information debt managing system (EISPRAXIS) and a public campaign regarding taxation responsibility.
Organizational Restructuring of Tax Audits
Looking for uniformity, specialization, and fairer tax audits, we are consolidating our audit services in Attica and Thessaloniki into 6 fully equipped tax audit centers.
Implementing the RRF project for fully Digitalizing IAPR
This includes:
- developing new core IT systems (myTaxisnet, myICISnet),
- Introducing Advanced Operational Intelligence (ΒΙ) and Data Analytics,
- Establishing a connectivity system between registers and POS,
- Monitoring of movement of commercial vehicles in the Greek territory, along with digitalizing Shipment invoice
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The wake of 2021 will find us wounded, scarred by the number of losses in human lives but resilient and determined. Determined to seize the lessons learned and change.
Using Socrates’ words “the secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new”.
I assure you this is what we intend to do.
