Number of state debtors soars

Almost 600,000 Greeks were added to the long list of state debtors over the summer, according to a report by the Parliamentary Budget Office, with experts viewing the development as a sign of deterioration for the country’s private economy. The PBO quarterly report for the July-September 2018 period noted this week that compared with the previous quarter, 584,979 more individuals and taxpayers owed money to the state. According to Independent Authority for Public Revenue (IAPR) figures, this took the total number of debtors to the tax authorities to over 4.3 million at the end of September, or roughly two in every three taxpayers in Greece. “That is a reflection of the worsening situation for individual taxpayers and corporations alike,” IAPR board member Nikolina Kosteletou commented to Xinhua. The Parliamentary Budget Office attributed this increase “to the seasonal factor – i.e. the deadline of certain categories of tax installments to which a section of taxpayers was unable to respond.” This has reversed the declining trend seen in previous quarters, according to the report. Compared to the end of 2017, the number of individuals and corporations who owe the state a relatively small amount of up to 500 euros has increased by 312,812, the data showed. “It is a sign that the private economy is not doing well, otherwise these people would have paid off their dues, as they used to do in the previous period,” added Kosteletou, also an economics lecturer at the University of Athens. She also estimated that “this will only change once the economy reverts