Responding to press reports that the government might be mulling a uniform VAT rate for all goods and services – including foods – main opposition Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) on Tuesday stressed that the idea was outrageous “even as a thought,” despite the government’s denial.

According to SYRIZA, a uniform VAT rate would burden households with a new wave of price hikes in staple goods and fundamental services, such as electricity, water and natural gas, while doing irreparable harm to the Aegean islands.

At the same time as citizens were facing the “tax barbarity” of the uniform real estate property tax, the government was trying to sugar the pill with so-called tax reductions when it actually planned to increase the tax burden on small and middle incomes, the party added.