out of its power provider? The government bribed the unions with borrowed money
so as to make them look greedy. AND
they got DEH involved in collecting taxes, which the people revolted against.
Before you know it, DEH needs money, they go further into debt, and boom,
they get sold of as a leprous venture that foreigners will buy for 10 cents
on the Euro (dead currency walking).
IshitUnot: Athens news
Greece gives emergency cash to avert energy meltdown
28 Apr 2012
With the electricity market in complete disarray, it was only a matter of time, before a possible dead end made its appearance
Greece will provide 250 million euros in emergency funds to its ailing electricity providers to prevent a California-style energy crisis, government officials said on Friday.
The liquidity injection removes the risk of a financial chain reaction which, according to regulators, was threatening to bring the country's electricity system to its knees.... Greece's energy market has fallen into disarray due to a combination of stagnant power demand, rising fuel costs and a government decision to use PPC as a tax collection vehicle.
An increasing number of consumers stopped paying their electricity bills after the government started collecting a 1.7 billion euro property tax through them last year, in a desperate effort to meet its budget targets under an EU/IMF bailout.
Non-payments blew a hole into the accounts of PPC, which is Greece's biggest power producer and its sole electricity retailer. PPC, which posted a record loss in the fourth quarter, is also the biggest client for upstart producers generating about 23 percent of Greece's electricity.
... Energy is a sore point in the country's relations with its lenders. The EU and the IMF have been pressuring Athens to introduce more competition in its 5-billion euro retail power market by deregulating electricity prices and abolishing PPC's monopoly over coal, the country's cheapest and most abundant energy source. (Reuters)
ZH- “Quite an incredible move - to force the electricity provider to gather the property taxes - and while this attempt clearly failed”
