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State Bill Payments Still Lagging

XARTONOMISMATA2_518_355The State’s General Accounting Office has paid 4.3 billion euros in overdue bills but still owes 1.4 billion euros to individuals, with some businesses complaining the lag in reimbursements for Value Added Tax (VAT) overcharges and other monies the state owes is forcing them to shut up shop. ,
The Ministries of Health, Foreign Affairs, and Labor are said to be the biggest delinquents in getting bills paid. With banks having slowed lending almost to a standstill, businesses are finding themselves in a big bind.
By the end of August the bodies of the ministries had disbursed only 53% of the state’s overdue debts.
At the same time, there’s a delay at the procedures for the offsetting of the debts between the state and the private individuals, setting the businesses and the private individuals at risk of legal implications.
The data was presented by Alternate Finance Minister Christos Staikouras who said even while the government was paying some of its debts that new bills were coming in faster than they could be handled.
“Our main objective is for the state to try not to create a new generation of expired debts while responding to its obligations so as to increase the cash flow in the real economy, which is a necessary condition for the economy to rebound,” Staikouras acknowledged.
He added that in the year to end-August, the state has paid lump retirement sums for 18,342 retiring civil servants, 91 percent of the funding required by military social security entities, and 84 percent of the obligations of hospitals and the National Health System.

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