The Public Revenue Office has published its latest list of debtors, and the number at the bottom is hard to ignore: nearly 13 billion denars in unpaid tax obligations. More precisely, the total published net debt amounts to 12,913,992,404 denars - recorded for obligations due by the end of February and unpaid as of 31 May.

On the list for June there are 1,941 legal entities and 3,117 individuals. The debts are based on VAT, profit tax and other levies. But the most interesting part is the one that rarely happens - among the top ten biggest debtors this time are exclusively private firms, and all of them from Skopje and the surrounding area.

Behind every list like this sits a question the state does not want to ask out loud: how does someone accumulate a debt of millions of denars and still keep operating? The debtor list is a tool for public pressure - the idea is that shame will push someone to pay. But when the same names and the same firms appear from list to list, a more serious question arises - whether the publishing changes anything at all, or is just a ritual repeated every month.

Thirteen billion denars in unpaid tax is not an abstract number. It is money missing from the budget that funds hospitals, schools and pensions. While the ordinary citizen is fined for the smallest late bill, the biggest debtors sit calmly on a list that evidently does not scare them enough. The question is when the state will move from publishing names to collecting the money.