Since the beginning of the unprecedented energy crisis that broke out after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Greek Government has allocated a total of more than 10 billion euros to households and businesses in order to cope with the increased cost of electricity, says government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis.

Of these, approximately 5 billion were only for businesses, of which over 800 million were granted to 1,250,000 consumers which are: businesses with power supplies up to 35 KVA, farmers as well as bakeries.

In retrospect, the need arose to recalculate state aid for a small number of companies, in order to check whether they had received the correct amounts in relation to the maximum aid limits for each category of beneficiaries, as provided by European legislation, states Mr. Marinakis , and adds:

“This recalculation resulted in the Government having to allocate an additional 4.2 million euros to approximately 130,000 businesses and less than 2,200 requesting the return of a total amount of 970,000 euros.”

“The consumers from whom refunds of aid are requested correspond to 1.7 thousand of the total number of businesses, farmers and bakeries that were aided in total. The amounts that must be returned by each company are in the vast majority amounts up to 200 euros. The amounts of refunds, therefore, correspond to 1.2 percent of the total amount of money that only this sub-category of businesses (enterprises, farmers, bakeries) has received as state aid,” he notes.

“The Official Opposition, once again, without being informed about the true size of the issue, is in a hurry to magnify it to an inexplicable extent using its favorite tactic of requesting the resignation of Ministers by making a cheap opposition. We continue to turn our backs on the cheap and uninformed populists of SYRIZA and support citizens and businesses with respect for taxpayers’ money and the country’s public finances,” concludes the government representative.