The €1 billion just waiting to be collected by the government

A €1 billion pile of money owed to the government is just waiting to be collected, a National Audit Office report has revealed.
The sum is the equivalent of 6.5 per cent of national GDP, or 12 per cent of Malta’s national debt.
It represents the arrears owed to the government by the end of 2021 which the NAO believes are collectable. The vast majority is owed by private individuals or companies, with just €86 million owed by one government department to another.
In reality, the €1 billion figure is just a fraction of the total owed to the government, which amounted to almost €6.4 billion by the end of 2021.
The NAO criticised what it said was "insufficient effort" to collect amounts owed to the government.
A huge majority of that money owed – around 85 per cent of it – is classified as ‘uncollectable’ due to a variety of reasons, ranging from claims being statute-barred to ongoing disputes.
For instance, of the €925 million that the government says it is owed in income tax, it can only hope to collect a maximum of €166 million, with the rest classified as not collectable.  

Despite there being no real prospect of ever recovering that money, the government continues to mark it...