Greece plans to introduce a digital system for tracking agricultural product transactions by the end of 2027, which will allow tax authorities to more precisely control the movement of goods and limit fraud in the market, the online edition of the "Kathimerini" newspaper reported.
The project of the Independent Authority for State Revenue (AADE) envisages the phased introduction of digital identification and standardized reporting of transactions with products such as milk, meat, olive oil, honey, fruits and vegetables. Initially, the system will cover milk and meat, and then it will be expanded to other categories of agricultural produce, the Greek daily notes.
Each transaction will contain detailed data on the type, category and quantity of the traded product. Thus, the tax administration will be able to track goods from production and initial sale to their subsequent processing, as well as to compare the declared quantities with the actual reported transactions. The aim is to limit practices that lead to market distortion, including the presentation of imported goods as Greek production, the inaccurate declaration of produced quantities and violations in the control of agricultural subsidies.
To this end, AADE is developing a unified classification of agricultural products, which will be combined with more detailed sales documents. Unlike the previous reporting through general product categories, the new model will allow for a more accurate description of the specific product and the quantity subject to the transaction.
According to the project's design, digitalization will provide tax authorities with more complete information about the actual flows of agricultural production and will facilitate the identification of discrepancies between production, sales and declared data. This is expected to improve market transparency and make it more difficult to conceal revenue and other supply chain irregularities, Kathimerini also points out.