Unionists of Electricity company (DEH) are considering serious ways to block the Property levy, imposed for 2011 and 2012, and present a ticking bombshell to Finance Ministry €2-billion revenues plans. According to the latest information, GENOP-DEH union claims that they will need more than 5 months to send the electricity bills including the property levy to DEH-customers. Should they do it, the government won’t be able to collect the levy within 2011, which will be pain in two installments. The first installment is supposed to be sent out in October 2011.
According to unionists, DEH cannot send more than 190,000 bills per day and it will need 40 days per installment. For the first installment 2,5 months will be needed, another 2,5 for the second. And so forth… Consequently the four installments planned for 2012 will be extended to first months of 2013.
Meanwhile, more and more Greeks are queueing at DEH-branches, cutting the electricity either at their vacation homes, or at homes or offices that are currently not leased. And hoping to escape the tax bill.
At the same time, lawyers are getting ready to file complaints about the Property Levy, claiming it is against the Constitutions as it threatens to cut the electricity, a vital utility, to those who won’t pay the levy.
The movement “I don’t Pay the Levy” is also reading some protest actions.
There are a lot of claims, tricks and scenarios how to avoid paying the levy without having your electricity cut, but we have to wait until the picture and the ideas are reliable and van be materialized in the context of law.
The government has threatened to put a fine to DEH or private electricity companies should they block or ignore the levy collection. It also threatens with confiscations (!) of private assets. At the same time there is a law that the state can’t confiscate taxpayers’ assets if they are less than 100,000 euro, or so. Blackmailing citizens of a debt-ridden country seems to be the only solution for a government in panic. So sad….
Read also our KTG articles on the issue.