Total arrears to Greek tax bureau at 107.7bln€ after 7bln€ write-off of state RR company’s debt

Arrears owed to the Greek tax bureau (AADE) eased to the still stratospheric 107.7 billion euros in April 2023 after a massive seven-billion-euro debt owed by the state-run Hellenic Railways Organisation was written off, as based on a law passed in 2022.

The write-off affects uncollectible arrears from unpaid loans incurred by OSE, and with the Greek state as the guarantor.

In terms of the overall figure, AADE now characterizes 26.28 billion euros as non-collectible. The number of individuals and business entities owing at least one euro to the tax bureau exceeds 3.68 million.

The “non-collectible” figure, however, may be much higher, that much of the arrears date back years and even decades, assigned to companies long dissolved or bankrupt and individuals now longer economically active or even alive.

A timelier figure relates to 2.45 billion euros in new arrears created in the first four months of 2023, of which 220 million euros recorded in April 2023, compared to new arrears to the tax bureau of 252 million euros in the corresponding month of 2022 – a decrease of 13 percent.