Mitsotakis vows to scrap wine tax if he becomes PM

Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the leader of Greece's opposition New Democracy party, pledged on Saturday that if he becomes prime minister he will scrap a new excise tax on wine introduced at the beginning of the year.

Mitsotakis visited the Oenorama wine exhibition in Athens to meet with producers and vowed to back them in their efforts to grow their businesses.

“The scrapping of the special consumption tax on wine is a New Democracy pledge,” he said.

“There was no logic behind the implementation of this tax and it essentially produces no revenues for the state. The only thing it does is burden Greek producers with excessive bureaucracy.”

The tax has been in place since January 1 and sees 0.15 euros added to the cost of a 750 ml bottle of wine or 0.20 euros to a 1-liter bottle.