Big Brother for Greek vehicles
As of late January an online platform will collect all information for owners and authorities
Over 2.2 million vehicle owners will in just over a month run the risk of high fines, as in late January the Digital Governance Ministry will start operating a new online platform with access to the data of all vehicles in the country.
That will identify the approximately 650,000 uninsured vehicles circulating in Greece, according to estimates, as well as the 1.5 million vehicles that have not visited Technical Inspection Centers (KTEO) and the owners of 75,000 vehicles who haven’t paid their road tax.
The ministry’s planning provides for two applications: One that will offer vehicle owners specific information, and one that will provide data to inspection authorities (vehicle data, the date of issue/suspension of permit, road tax payment, the period of insurance coverage etc). Through state portal Gov.gr, vehicle owners will be able to access the myAuto application and see the full data for their asset, its insurance coverage, KTEO checks etc, while tax officers and the police will be able to use the Audit-Car application to gain full access to data on whether a vehicle has undergone inspections, is insured and has had its road tax paid.
For a monitoring authority to access that information, it currently takes the cooperation of the ministries of Finance, Transport and Public Order, as each ministry employs different systems that are not interconnected.
The new digital services will be connected online with the databases of various state bodies, such as the Transport Ministry, the Independent Authority for Public Revenue, the police and the car accident liability insurance fund.
Meanwhile market professionals estimate that at the end of this year more vehicles will be withdrawn compared to previous years, largely owing to the energy rate crisis that has sent fuel prices soaring. Last year 132,000 owners withdrew their cars from the roads, up from 84,000 in 2019; of course teleworking became the norm for many last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic and as of May road tax can also be paid by the month.
