VAT loss came to 37 bln euros in 2009-13

Greece missed out on revenues of about 37 billion euros due to value-added tax evasion from 2009 to 2013, according to data released on Friday by the European Commission, while the country was revealed to have a VAT dodging rate of more than twice that of the European Union average.

The figures showed that 34 percent of VAT dues were not paid in 2013 (compared with an EU average of 15.2 percent), depriving state coffers of some 6.5 billion euros. With consumption at a higher level in 2011, the VAT dodging that year amounted to 9.16 billion euros, Brussels estimated.

VAT revenues in 2009 came to 14.87 billion euros in 2009, while an estimated 7.57 billion was not paid. The dodging rate exceeded 40 percent in 2011, when VAT takings came to 15 billion from a possible 24.16 billion euros, the Commission’s figures showed.