Lists yield little tax revenue and prospects poor
Very little revenue has been gathered from the so-called Lagarde and Borjans lists of wealthy depositors, which had been touted by authorities as potential sources for recouping evaded taxes, according to figures submitted in Parliament on Thursday by Deputy Finance Minister Katerina Papanatsiou, and recent legislation limiting the statute of limitations suggests that little more will be raised.
Authorities attributed a total of 1.1 billion euros of evaded taxes and fines to depositors on those lists but only managed to collect 95 million euros, according to the data submitted in Parliament.
The proceeds from a promised crackdown on fuel smuggling and the contraband tobacco trade are also disappointing.
Papanatsiou presented the figures to the House following a question by New Democracy’s shadow economic policy minister Christos Staikouras, who slammed the leftist-led government for “promising 3 billion euros in revenue within six months and finally collecting less than 100 million euros in three years.”
There appears to be little scope for raising further revenue as most of the cases on those two lists are now time-barred following a decision last summer by the Council of State reducing the statute of limitations.
