Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos has said he expects a clean exit from Greece’s bailout programme in August, and that major tax cuts are planned for the next five years, in a no-hold-barred interview with Alpha television in Athens.
Tsakalotos said that there will be 3.5 billion euros in tax cuts over a five-year period, in a medium-term economic plan that the government will table in parliament in May.
“The tax cuts will target primarily the middle class, those whose lives have been made more difficult,” he said.
The difference between the current and the post-bailout levels of supervision is that now creditors are involved in setting targets and determining how they are implemented, whereas after August creditors will continue to have an active role in setting targets, but the Greek government will determine how they are implemented.
“It is not a situation where we have supervision now, but will not later, but it will gradually be reduced,” Tsakalotos said, asserting that there are many in the eurozone who say “enough with austerity”.
The minister said that the government will devise its own programme, with growth targets and social welfare measures, by spring.
He said the programme will focus on combating tax evasion and contraband trade, public administration, investments, and European funding (ESPA).
Tsakalotos said he opposes a precautionary credit line after finishing up with the memorandum.
