The Public Power Corp. (PPC), Greece’s dominant but loss-making electricity utility, on Friday announced measures to seize assets of consumer with major arrears to the company, adding that the latter is the owner of a 1,000-square-meter residence in the upscale northern Athens district of Kifissia and the beneficiary of a rate subsidy program.
The ATHEX-listed utility said the man was included in the welfare program after submitting forged certificates.
The announcement comes as part of PPC’s “get tough” policy with so-called “strategic defaulters”, individual, business or industrial consumer that are capable of paying off arrears but who use legal loopholes to avoid payment.
The specific consumer owes PPC more than 23,000 euros, with the case uncovered by the utility’s services in 2017, but with obligatory collection measures only instituted recently.
Arrears owed to PPC exceed a stratospheric 2.5 billion euros, a massive burden on the company’s now loss-plagued and debt-laden balance sheet.
Covering a significant portion of the arrears, in fact, is a major component of a rescue initiative for the utility, billed as Greece’s largest industrial concern.
