The government looks set to exceed its revenue targets from the unpopular property tax, an official at the Public Power Corporation (DEI) which is collecting the tax said yesterday.
A total of 650m euros of the tax have been collected so far, suggesting the final take may breach the government’s initial goals, said the official who declined to be named.
“This [figure] means that the government will meet its 1.7bn euro revenue target for this year, probably hitting 2bn,” he said.
DEI is collecting the tax through electricity bills under the threat of cutting consumers’ power if they fail to comply. But despite the protests, only about a fifth of households are in arrears – the usual rate for all DEI bills, the official said.
The government imposed the tax in September in a desperate move to meet its budget deficit targets under the EU/IMF bailout.
Interim budget figures published on Tuesday suggest that the state will still miss its target to narrow the deficit to 9 per cent of GDP this year from 10.6 per cent in 2010 due to a deeper-than-expected recession.
DEI is also struggling from the recession. The state-controlled company has reported its first loss in almost two years for the third quarter, due to falling electricity demand and rising generation costs.
DEI, 51-per cent owned by the government, has also been hurt by the country’s sovereign debt crisis. The company is holding talks with banks to refinance 1.2bn euros of debt maturing next year, about 700m euros of which will fall due by the end of the first quarter, Zervos added.
DEI hopes that the government will approve later this month electricity price increases that will help the company cope with recession. Energy Minister Yiorgos Papakonstantinou told the same conference earlier on Thursday that the new prices will be announced within the next 10 days.
Source: Reuters
