Greece is planning to cut tax rates for oil and gas companies as it wants to attract them to help exploit its untapped offshore hydrocarbon resources, its energy minister said on Tuesday. Under the plan, oil and gas explorers will pay 25 percent tax, down from 40 percent currently, and 5 percent of the tax will go to local communities. "We have done this in order to incentivize our investors to invest in the future of Greece," Ioannis Maniatis, Greece's Energy Minister, said at a conference in London. He did not say when the new tax rates would come into effect.