Troika hails significant progress, confirms that "a few issues remain outstanding"

A day after Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and representatives of the country's foreign lenders failed to reach a final agreement on a range of structural reforms, the so-called troika on Thursay confirmed that several issues “remain outstanding.”

   “Significant progress has been made but a few issues remain outstanding,” said a statement issued by the European Commission, the ECB and the IMF.
   “As additional technical work will be necessary to settle these issues, the mission will take a short break to allow this work to be completed,” it said.

The troika said the mission plans to return to Athens in early April to continue its work.

Meanwhile, their meeting at the Maximos Mansion with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras failed to reach a compromise and so the negotiations have been extended until the end of the month. However, Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras said Greece will finally get the March tranche and the remaining issues are going to be closed until the return the auditors.

The first disagreement with Greece’s lenders representatives lies in the issue of civil servants. Troika calls for layoffs and claims minister Antonis Manitakis is unable to present charts of departments and schedules for transfers or retirements. Manitakis presented a new plan but still he did not satisfy Greece's lenders.

The second point of disagreement is the collect of taxes on real estate. The State is committed to replacing the hike through the Greek Power Company (DEH) by the single property tax, but Greece's lenders insist to extend the measure for another year.

Parallel to this the Troika has rejected a reduction in Value Added Tax to eating establishments -at 13%- as well as the elimination of the measure for heating oil. The repayment of debt of citizens in the State remains open. There are also minor issues, such as adjusting the tranches for IKA, debts of municipalities, the EOPYY deficit and settling the loans toward banks.

Since the auditors left without the two sides reaching a final agreement, the negotiation is transferred to their political superiors. The representatives of the lenders argue that there are significant delays in administrative and fiscal reforms and in changing the tax collection mechanism, insisting that the government program is going to present significant shortfalls.

On its part, the Greek government says that the strength of Greek society has been exhausted and that deviations in revenues will be covered until the end of the year.

(Combined Reports AMNA, Kathimerini)