Greece 'Names And Shames' Top Tax Dodgers

Debt-laden Greece has released a list of 4,000 of the country's biggest tax dodgers as part of a name-and-shame policy to get evaders to pay up.

A famous singer, retired basketball star and former media magnate are among those on the list published by the Greek government.

The debts listed total almost £13bn, with the worst offender owing the state nearly £8.4m.

Tax evasion is endemic in Greece and its international lenders, the EU and the IMF, have insisted that Athens improve its tax collection if they are to continue bankrolling the debt-crippled country.

Greece has about £50bn in unpaid taxes, a figure equivalent to about a quarter of its economy, according to an EU report published in November.

The 'name and shame' list came as EU finance ministers met to discuss the ongoing crisis in Greece and the rest of the eurozone.

The Institute of International Finance (IIF) , which represents Greece's creditors, is also holding a press conference on Tuesday ahead of this week's World Economic Forum in Davos.

The Greek tax evader list includes veteran singer Tolis Voskopoulos, former basketball player Michael Misounof and a whole host of business tycoons.

At the top is a 58-year-old accountant who is currently serving a 504-year prison sentence for tax fraud. He allegedly owes £794m, most of which is in surcharges and fines.

With many other tax dodgers on the list also in prison or bankrupt, Greece's finance ministry acknowledged that it would be extremely hard to collect many of the outstanding debts.

Finance ministry official Haris Theocharis said: "The truth is that these lists contain debtors who in some cases have owed the money for a long period of time, so after a certain point one does not expect to be able to collect the debts.

"But I'm sure that there are possibilities ... In some cases (publication) will push debtors to settle their debts, and tax offices to redouble their efforts."

Greece 'Names And
Shames' Top Tax Dodgers

Despite repeated pledges over the past two years, Greek officials have failed to make progress in collecting outstanding debts.

Little more than a tenth of the £50bn owed in tax is seen as collectible.

Greece's 2011 budget deficit is expected to be around £16.5bn. This compares to an annual gross domestic product of about £182bn.

The Greek government has acknowledged the grave shortcomings of its tax service, even admitting that a hugely unpopular new property tax, under which non-paying households will have their electricity cut off, might not have been imposed if the tax collection system was more efficient.

©Sky News

First UK marine energy park to be built in south west

Wind turbines are seen
in a wind park off the coast
of Ijmuiden, in a file photo.
 REUTERS/ Michael Kooren

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's first marine energy park will be developed in the south west of the country, in a bid to speed up the commercial expansion of the wave and tidal industry from 2020, the government said on Monday.

Over the past seven years, over 100 million pounds have been invested in the south west marine energy industry.

The park will stretch from Bristol to Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. The first commercial wave farms of 10 to 30 megawatts (MW) will be located off the north Cornish coast.

From 2018, larger wave farms of 100 MW or more could be put in deeper water, a document by developers Regen SW showed.

The Isles of Scilly have the potential to provide the islands with self-sufficient energy or export back to the mainland.

A report by the Offshore Renewables Resource Assessment and Development project estimates that over 1,240 MW of wave energy projects could be developed by 2030.

"This figure could be considerably higher if wave energy technology is successful in driving down costs to become competitive with offshore wind and to make it economically viable to exploit resources greater than 50 km from shore," the document said.

The government said wave or tidal energy has the potential to generate up to 27 gigawatts of power in the UK alone by 2050, equivalent to eight coal-fired power stations.

"Marine power has huge potential in the UK not just in contributing to a greener electricity supply and cutting emissions, but in supporting thousands of jobs in a sector worth a possible 15 billion pounds to the economy to 2050," said Greg Barker, energy and climate minister.

Last year, the government said it planned to double financial support for wave and tidal stream technologies.

©Reuters