The main power utility PPC has lost track of some 100,000 customers owing electricity bill amounts over a year, between the end of 2016 and the end of 2017.

The utility’s vanished customers, who, most recently, have resorted to changing their tax file numbers, owe approximately 700 million euros to PPC. This 700 million-euro amount, which includes debt owed by firms that have been out of business for decades, represents roughly 30 percent of the utility’s unpaid receivables total.

PPC and debt collection firm Qualco, hired by the utility in November, are currently investigating the matter in an effort to get vanished customers back on the radar.

During the recession’s early days, PPC lost many customers who chose to interrupt electricity supply at properties not being used, but the tax file number changing initiative appears to be a new and more desperate way of cutting ties with the utility.

PPC officials and technocrats representing the country’s lenders held a meeting on Monday to discuss the power utility’s unpaid receivables issue, including debt owed by the Greek State, as well as the current collaboration between the power utility and Qualco.

The lender representatives showed no signs of preparing extraordinary measures, an energypress source informed.