Equitalia, requests for payments 107 bn

(ANSA) - Rome, February 9 - Between 2008 and 2015 tax collection agency Equitalia handled approximately 5.6 million requests for payments to be made in instalments, to a total value of over 107 billion euros, CEO Ernesto Maria Ruffini told the Senate Finance Commission Tuesday.
    In 2015 income from instalments represented approximately 50% of the total, Ruffini said.
    This was in line with the previous year, he added.
    Ruffini told the commission the amount of tax arrears collected has increased notably since October 2006, when the national tax collection system came under public control. "During the period 2000-2005 the private concessionaires collected on average 2.9 billion euros a year, with Equitalia the average has risen to 7.7 billion euros a year," he said. "The numerous legislative interventions and activity carried out by the Equitalia group over the years have not managed to resolve the problem of uncollected tax arrears, leading to the creation of so-called 'bad quotas'. These represent the 'extreme pathology' of debt collection by inscription on the official register," Ruffini said.