As far as the new hydroplane routes and the prospect of foreign investments, Charalambous noted that “Greece can become a Maldives in Europe. It is a destination tourists from across the world want to visit. Investments in tourism will not stop, whether we remain in the Eurozone or return to the drachma. What is required is to project the right image to the rest of the world. Efforts made to attract foreign investments should not stop every time we have political developments.”

Regarding the cost of transportation, travel by seaplane will not be very expensive. For a half hour route, for example from Athens to Serifos, or Kos to Naxos, or Rhodes to Sitia, tickets are estimated at 75-80 euros. For a similar trip by conventional means of transportation, one should calculate costs to and from the airport, i.e. 35 euros to El. Venizelos airport, 22 euros from the Kos airport to the city of Kos, or 20 euros to Rhodes Airport.

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By Philip Chrysopoulos

He promised to scale back a unified property tax (ENFIA) as of this year, to introduce a flat corporate tax rate of 15 percent and to revoke pension and benefit cuts for ethnic Greeks from the Soviet Union and Black Sea region. He envisaged the creation of 770,000 jobs by boosting growth in a number of sectors, adding that primary residences would be protected and heralding incentives for the repatriation of funds removed from Greece during the crisis years.

“Now we are entering a growth period and it is time for increases,” Samaras said, noting that any boosts will be properly priced and will not unbalance the budget. He added that Greece could “exit the memorandum a year before schedule.”

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“It is the first time we are so well prepared,” said New Democracy’s executive members and emphasized that, despite the various press leaks, there was great willingness to participate in the ballots.

Similarly, Greek main opposition SYRIZA‘s central committee met today in order to take its final decisions on the matter. The special committee charged with the ballots drafting has completed its work and is expected to submit its proposals to the central committee, which might proceed with limited differentiations. The final ballots will be published today.

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By Aggelos Skordas

The offsetting system, known as “net metering,” allows households and companies who produce their own electricity through photovoltaics to share it with the local utility company that then credits them for it against the cost of electricity it provides to them.

A meter will measure both the energy consumed by the producer — e.g. a household — and that provided to the utility grid. For a household, the bill issued every four months will factor in incoming and outgoing energy; if the incoming energy is greater, the household pays the difference, if it is the lesser of the two, the household will be credited for the next four-month cycle. A final statement will be issued at the end of the year, after which any surplus will not be carried over.

Installations will not have to be on roofs only, and self-producing energy consumers will pay a fee only for the electric energy they consume from the power grid or the system.

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By A. Makris

The survey for Sunday's Eleftheros Typos newspaper was conducted on Dec. 29 to 30, after Prime Minister Antonis Samaras failed to have his candidate elected president by parliament.

The poll put support for Syriza at 30.4 percent against 27.3 percent for the conservatives of Samaras's New Democracy party, if an election were held now, a slight narrowing from a 3.4 point lead in a previous Rass poll last month. The election has been set for Jan. 25.

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There also are some 400,000 owners who will see a small rise in their ENFIA dues as a result of the corrections they have made to their official property status.

More than 3.1 million modifications to the E9 forms had been submitted by December 30, with 1.4 million changes concerning taxpayers’ 2014 property status. The other modifications concerned previous years. Owners will be allowed to make more changes to their E9 for previous years, but that will incur a 100-euro fine per form changed.

To read more, please visit ekathimerini.com

By Prokopis Hatzinikolaou

The offsetting system, known as "net metering", allows households and companies that produce their own electricity through photovoltaics to share it with the local utility company that then credits them for it against the cost of electricity it provides to them.

The new smart meters will measure both the energy consumed by the producer (e.g. a household) and that provided to the utility grid. In a household's case, the bill issued every four months will factor in incoming and outgoing energy; if the incoming energy is greater, the household pays the difference, if it is the lesser of the two, the household will be credited for the next four-month cycle. A final statement will be issued at the end of the year, after which any surplus will not be carried over.

To read more, please visit thetoc.gr/eng