6 million citizens will be overtaxed with the new uniform real estate ownership tax (ENFIA) as the theoretical objective values calculated by ENFIA bear no relation to reality. On Wednesday, the Finance Minister didn’t hint at any reduction to these amounts through to 2016 resulting on Greek citizens being called to pay for imagined values rather than the real worth of their property for 2014 and 2015. In many cases, the assumed value is twice as high than the actual worth of the real estate, especially considering the drop in values over recent years.

Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis made an announcement on Wednesday concerning ENFIA. He described the tax as the first important step towards creating a uniform real estate database with data being constantly added and corrected. He also noted the significance of the fact that data was applied electronically for the first time.

He stated that the mistakes already identified will soon be fixed through a bill tabled in Parliament, though he gave no hint that this bill would include changes to objective values.

More improvements to ENFIA are expected to take place in the future, according to the minister.

He emphasized the coalition government’s fundamental commitment to the broadening of the tax base and the fair distribution of the tax burden. The government’s goal is to gradually decrease ENFIA tax charges and turn the property tax into the main source of revenue for the local and regional government.

The first of six ENFIA tax installments is due at the end of September and the final installment at the end of February.