Living without electricity in Greece has reached enormous proportions as thousands of households are unable to pay their electricity bills that skyrocket due to several additional energy charges, municipality fees and the so-called “emergency property tax”.
More than 350,000 property owners and tenants cannot pay in time the amount on the electricity bills with the effect that Public Power Company (DEH) cuts off their electricity supply.
About 10% of these households (35,000) forced to live in the dark seeks the aid of ‘activists’ who illegally reconnect the power, despite the risk to face prosecution and criminal charges.
It is only 6:10 households (210,000) that pay the bill and reconnect power, while the rest remains also weeks in the dark.
Indicative of the tragic situation is the the power outage increased in the last two years, since the “emergency property tax” was included in the electricity bills.
Electricity bill* for a 110 sqm apartment for 3 months:Electricity consumption € 70 (ca 800kWh)Value Added Tax 13% € 9 = € 79Fees (emissions,power transport etc € 42 =Municipality Fees& property tax € 41Public Broadcaster € 9Emergency property tax €130 (installment) = € 222Total: €310considering the unemployment rates of 27% this is a nice batch of money* the example is just indicative
Since Greece sought the aid of International Monetary Fund, the electricity outages almost doubled (80%), reaching 241,000 in 2010. The power disconnections referred mostly to main residence and summer house, while 30%-40% affected businesses that closed down due to economic crisis.
Regarding the outstanding debts in electricity bills, they now exceed 1.3 billion euro, while 700,000 payment settlements were arranged in 2012.
Exclusive report published in daily Efimerida twn syntaktwn via zougla.gr