Another public structure closes in Lixouri and the Katsiveli Municipal Authority simply watches!

At the height of the economic crisis and the Memoranda, during the two-year period 2011-2012, successive governments and the Ministry of Finance decided and implemented the abolition of the Lixouri Tax Office (DOY) and its merger with the Argostoli Tax Office. Treating citizen service as a "cost", they promoted the first major wave of tax office mergers across the country, under the pretext of digitizing transactions, centralizing services, and combating corruption.

Then, to "sweeten the pill" for the local community of Paliki, they left a decentralized Taxpayer Service Office (G.E.F.) – which is now under the IAPR (Independent Authority for Public Revenue) – in operation for the in-person service of our fellow citizens. Its role proved critical, as it received tax declarations that were not mandatorily submitted electronically, accepted applications or supporting documents, and forwarded cases to the competent Tax Office.

To maintain this basic structure, the then Municipality of Kefalonia uncomplainingly undertook the cost of housing the G.E.F. (390 €), renting the appropriate space itself.

Today, however, the final act of this chronic depreciation is being written. Due to the retirement of the sole employee, the current government and the IAPR are proceeding with the definitive closure of the G.E.F., removing the last point of tax service from Lixouri.

In the face of this new degradation, the Popular Rally (Laïki Syspeirosi) unreservedly denounces the closure of yet another vital structure that decisively served our region, and especially our older fellow citizens.

However, the responsibilities of the Municipal Authority are also immense, which, although aware of the problem, did absolutely nothing to prevent it. It is obvious that the operation of the G.E.F. was not merely aimed at employing one employee, but at covering the real needs of the area. Therefore, her retirement should have meant her immediate replacement, in order to prevent the closure of this particular structure.

On the contrary, the Municipal Authority, choosing its preferred tactic of silence and "slipping away" (as it did not even bother to bring the issue to the Municipal Council) and practically aiding government machinations, left the field open for yet another critical service to be removed from Lixouri.

This policy of the government, as well as the tactic of facilitating it by the Municipal Authority, are clearly HOSTILE towards the people of Paliki, who are now called upon, urgently, to draw their own, valuable conclusions.

The Popular Rally in the Municipality of Lixouri