Rome, 6 March (AKI) - Famous Italian designer brands Dolce & Gabbana (D&G) and Salvatore Ferragamo should pay 2 and 20 million euros respectively in backtaxes to the Italian authorities, according to weekly Italian magazine L'Espresso.

D&G, which controls 80 percent of the Sto.Tex srl. company is guilty of "severe omissions" in declaring "unsold stocked goods" to Italian tax authorities, a tribunal found.

Sto.Tex failed to declare in its accounts that it re-sold 126,679 items with the D&G brand, resulting in a profit of 2,44 million euros.

Ferragamo set up 'headquarters' in The Netherlands to avoid Italy's stringent tax laws, but Italian tax authorities said the business is administered, directed and run from Italy.

Should business tycoon Silvio Berlusconi's conservative People of Freedom win next month's elections, Italian tax inspectors are not hopeful the evasion probes will continue at the same pace, Espresso said.

Tax evasion in Italy is rife and the outgoing centre-left government of Romano Prodi has made clamping down on the phenomenon one of its top priorities.

Conservative estimates put the value of Italy's black economy at half its gross domestic product.