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"When more than a year ago the finance minister of the day tried to table legislation to cancel some of these debts that were considered impossible to reclaim, there was a public outcry," he said. "People say, 'oh there's euro41 billion in outstanding (tax) debts, and if we reclaim that sum then we won't have any problems,'" he said. "This kind of talk has no meaning." Despite repeated pledges over the past two years, Greek officials have failed to make progress in collecting outstanding debts, which the European Commission task force for Greece calculates at about euro60 billion ($78 billion) -- little more than a tenth of which is seen as collectible. The country's annual gross domestic product is about euro218 billion, while the 2011 budget deficit is expected to be around euro19.7 billion. The government has acknowledged the grave shortcomings of its tax service, even admitting that a hugely unpopular new property tax under which nonpaying households will have their electricity cut off might not have been imposed if the tax collection system were more efficient.
[Associated
Press;
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