Greek government insists against new horizontal measures

The Greek economic team intends to convert the motion of SYRIZA to negotiating "weapon" to avoid greater pressure for new measures.
 
Members of the team believe that if Troika hardens its attitude at the meeting Sunday, Stournaras will not hesitate to warn them that their attitude can trigger political crisis in the country even on the same evening, urging them to choose if they want to have Tsipras and Tsakalotos as their interlocutors.
 
The finance ministry says the creditors’ delegates will show Sunday their actual intentions. Already from Friday Stournaras is in meetings with ministers and staff in order to organize the line of defense.
 

They want new measures

 The auditors took their time and looked at the figures and arguments of the Greek government, probably to be able to question them more effectively.
 
Even if the Greek side denies the information about the Thomsen’s "tricks", Troika is surely pressing for new measures. 'You will take new measures,’ Thomsen said Tuesday, while IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said from Washington that ‘the IMF mission assesses the budget of 2014. We need to see what measures will be needed to reach our goal.’
 

Troika is concerned about reactions to the pressure for new measures. Finance Ministry officials revealed that when FinMin Yannis Stournaras told Troika that the government will not take new measures that cause recession, Thomsen replied "whatever measures Greece takes, they will have an impact on GDP but the vibrations will be absorbed,’ and Stournaras reiterated that ‘Greece does not intend to implement horizontal measures. We will focus on the collection of taxes and contributions.’
 

Problems with the insurance system

 But perhaps the insurance system itself might become a victim of the structural measures. After pressure from Troika, the Greek government is proceeding expeditiously to remove taxes for third parties. Although many are absurd and anachronistic, imposed 80 years ago, it is estimated that today they generate revenues exceeding 3 billion euros annually. So their removal would cause serious problems.
 
Troika is also pushing for reduction of the employers' contributions which, although a memorandum obligation, would create a gap in pension funds that would lead to more benefit cuts.
 

The issues that will discussed on Sunday include:

 -       fiscal gap: Troika asks for measures of 1.2-2.5 billion euros, but the Greek government argues that, even if necessary, eventually they will not surpass the 500-800 million euros to be covered by already deployed measures and not additional ones
-       single real estate tax: after 18 months of consultations, Stournaras will commit to proceeding with the filing of the new law and that he will collect 2.9 billion euros from real estate taxes in 2014
-       defense industries: Troika requires the MoF to proceed to a drastic shrinking of EAS, otherwise it will request its immediate liquidation
-       restart of auctions with limited measures to protect only the poorest borrowers
-       immediate deregulation of commercial leases
-       acceleration of privatizations for revenues up to 3.5 billion euros in 2014
-       lists of names and addresses of employees who will be suspended or fired under the Memorandum.