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The state railways, Olympic Airlines and the public transport in Athens are the biggest tax debtors in Greece

09 September 2011 / 16:09:51  GRReporter
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A list with the names of 6,000 public and private companies owing the state more than €30 billion was published on the website of the Greek Ministry of Finance. All of them owe more than €150,000 and the total amount is equal to €30 billion in total unpaid tax liabilities amounting to €42 billion.

It turns out that the biggest debtor to the state is the state itself. The state railways OSE owe €1.2 billion and among the first 20 in the list are the former state airlines Olympic - €152 million and the public transport in Athens - €163.5 million.

The shipyard Neorion on the island of Syros owes €146.5 million and one of the three major football clubs in Athens AEK owes €103.2 million. The bankrupt insurance company Aspis Pronia owned by Pavlos Psomiadis who is in prison has not paid the state €38.5 million.

Among the debtors are companies that failed more than 20 years ago, like the legendary Piraiki-Patraiki owing €20.6 million and the first shopping centre in Athens Mignon with a debt of €18.7 million.

According to the data, the Greek oil company ELPE owes €3.18 million. The company, however, say it owes nothing to the state and especially the customs. The management of ELPE said that since the state owes the consortium €300 million they should be deducted from the alleged debt.

The Ministry’s message still indicates that mistakes could have been made in the amounts due and the lists will be corrected for these cases.

Different associations have huge debts, but most of them are in the process of liquidation. Media companies some of which have failed have high debts too. For example, the company Fourth Power, the publisher of a newspaper of the same name, owes around €17.5 million. The debts of the publishing company J. Velidis, which published for decades one of the biggest dailies in Thessaloniki - Macedonia - are €39.3 million.

Particularly interesting is the case with construction firms, most of which do not exist today or are in process of liquidation. The company Temeliodomi from Thessaloniki owes €20.4 million and is bankrupt. Three more companies that no longer exist owe several million euros and it is believed that it would be very difficult for the state to collect even a part of those amounts.

There are debtors among the companies in the food industry. €13.7 million is the amount due by the recently bankrupt supermarket chain Atlantic, Florina juices owe €52 million and the plant for chicken meat products Mimikos owes €22.6 million.

The Ministry is preparing to make a list of individuals owing large amounts. Currently, it is awaiting permission from the personal data protection service, but the request was to speed up the process and according to some sources, the list will be published around mid-September. The names, tax numbers and the amount due will be published on the website of the Ministry of Finance and the "black list" will be updated every three months. This will happen whenever the obligations of individual and legal persons exceed the amount of € 150,000 and its payment is delayed for a period longer than one year.

The government economic team believes that these data will help revenue collection. They include overdue obligations and the interest imposed on them by September 5 this year. The list does not contain companies and enterprises that have agreed with the tax authorities to pay the obligations gradually and debts with payment arranged by court decisions.

 

Tags: EconomyPoliticsMinistry of FinanceListDebtorsBankruptInsolvencyAmountsPersonal data
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