Residents of Heraklion, Crete, were caught by a very unpleasant surprise to see dozens of hearse cars outside the Prefecture in the morning. Some started to make the cross sign fearing that a tragedy had occurred. However, all these hearse parked next to the city’s municipality Christmas tree, were there just to protest the hikes in the road fees. The Association of Owners of Funeral Services had call to this protest action after the Greek Finance Ministry decided to declare that hearse vehicles are ‘private passenger cars’ and they should pay road taxes accordingly!
The president of the Association, Kostas Pitsikakis, told local news portal flashnews.gr, that with the new regulation funeral service owners will have to pay €800-1.200 per year for each hearse they own depending on the displacement of the vehicle. Until the law tax, hearse owners were paying €90-100 yearly road tax and were considered as ‘professional vehicles’. further, the new tax will apply retroactive also for previous years. The Cretan Association is iin contact with the Panhellenic Association as the measure does not apply to Crete only.
The angry funeral service owners gave a deadline to the government and threaten to expand their protest actions. They plan to even to stop transporting dead from the hospitals.
“If the Minister believes hearses are private passengers cars, I give him a hearse to take his family for a ride” Pitsikakis proposed as a Christmas gift.
PS I didn’t know that Surrealism was born in Greece.
