of Chrysostomos Tsoufis

Kostis Hatzidakis is on his 18th day at the Ministry of Finance and has already twice publicly rejected the possibility of a new debt settlement. The first time from the floor of the Parliament and the programmatic statements and the second time in an interview on SKAI radio.

Given this double refusal, and barring an exceptional contingency, because the ministry is even trying for improvements to the existing arrangements or even an extension – with Adonis Georgiadis declaring that his appointment with Kostis Hatzidakis is pending – they are currently running two terms for tax and insurance fund debtors.

The first is July 31st, when the time limit for applying to the 2 arrangements that concern either the revival of the 72 and 120 installments or the settlement of debts born from the pandemic and after and can be settled in 36-72 installments expires. Despite the great theoretical interest, the many cutters that were set according to the market factors, significantly limited the practical results with the result that 17 days before expiration they have regulated a little more than 11% of the potential beneficiaries.

It is recalled that the inclusion in the new regulation framework is done by paying 2 installments within 3 days of the application, while at the same time any other debts must be settled in the fixed arrangement of 24-48 installments within 1 month of the approval of the application. For the regulation of 120 installments, the interest rate is 3%, while for the installments concerning the debts created during the pandemic period, for those who pay the debt in 36 installments there is no interest, while for more installments the interest rate is set at 2.5 %.

The second deadline concerns big debtors, those who owe more than €150,000, who are at risk from August 4 of being “hanged on the pegs” by AADE and EFKA. Those in question will receive a final warning from the authorities on July 18, informing them that they have 15 days ahead of them to settle their debts before they are known throughout Greece.

The following will be excluded from public “humiliation”:

  • Debtors who have settled
  • Debtors with debts suspended by temporary order, court decision, act of an administrative body or by law
  • Debtors with uncollectible debts
  • Deceased debtors
  • Legal entities in the narrow or wider public sector

The last time the names of the mega-debtors were made public was in 2019, but due to the pandemic, this practice was suspended… Until August 4…