Debts to state rise above 60 billion euros in seven-month period
The amount of money owed to the cash-strapped Greek state by individuals and businesses rose above the 60-billion-euro mark at the end of July, hitting a new negative record, Finance Ministry figures showed on Friday.
The ministry’s General Secretariat for Revenues reported that debts to the state on July 31 stood at 60.181 billion euros, rising by some 407 million euros from the end of June and around 4.1 billion euros from the start of the year.
On December 31, 2012, total debts were 56.105 billion euros.
Most of the debts arise from uncollected fines for tax code violations (22.018 billion euros on July 31 compared to 20.621 billion on December 31), Value-Added Tax (13.463 billion compared to 12.597 billion), income tax (10.662 billion versus 10.651 billion) and from fines on overdue indirect taxes (2.573 billion versus 2.486 billion).
The sharpest increase in unpaid dues in the seven-month period from January to June concerns road tax, with overdue payments rising by 9 percent to 126.371 million euros.
According to the figures, more than 2 million individuals and 170,000 businesses have debts to the state, while just 1.55 billion euros of debts are currently in the process of being settled by special arrangement.
