“In the Government there are people who no we just love her self-governmenth, but we have it very high on the agenda. With confidence, we are all moving forward together to move the whole of local government into the digital age, to improve the daily life of citizens, to create new opportunities for regional development”, emphasized the Minister of Digital Governance, Dimitris Papastergiou at the Annual Regular Conference of the Central Union of Municipalities of Greece (KEDE) in Alexandroupoli presenting the Ministry’s plan for the digital transition of Local Government.
Many times over compared to today’s will be the revenues that the municipalities will receive from the implementation of the new collection system for fines concerning violations of the Road Traffic Code (KOK), according to Mr. Papastergiou.
Mr. Papastergiou reminded them long delays and collection issues that accompanied the previous system, recalling that every year approximately 100-110 million calls are cut and from them a little less than 40 million euros are collected.
“Collectability is a huge thorn. We are not saying that we will get revenue from the municipalities, but we are creating a platform where the calls of the whole country will “fall”, so that there is a unified management. The philosophy is that, at the time one is assured calla message comes to the (electronic) mailbox of the citizen that a violation is being examined and in some 24 hours the call normally comes with an RF code, it is paid or if it is not paid (…) within the deadline, it is confirmed to the AADE, which claims the revenue and returns it to the municipalities,” the minister explained.
“The purpose (of the new system) is not to take any resource or authority from self-government and municipalities. I am absolutely convinced that from this system the municipalities will have multiple revenues compared to today” said Mr. Papastergiou, citing the example of Cyprus: Cyprus installed only 110 cameras two years ago -90 fixed and 20 mobile- and already collects around 20 million euros per year. It becomes obvious how much more the income will be in Greece, where it is planned to install 2500 cameras.
Mr. Papastergiou also referred to the issue of cars with foreign license plateswho commit violations of the KOK, especially in Northern Greece, for which they never pay. “Many local mayors tell me about the cars with foreign license plates. Now, however, the system is connected to the customs stations and if a camera verifies a violation on Egnatia Odos, it will have arrived at the customs office when the violator goes to leave the country and no car will be released if this pending issue is not settled,” he explained, adding that similar care will be taken for cars with foreign license plates in tourist destinations, as well as for rental cars. vehicles.