The finance ministry and Greece’s creditors began talks yesterday that will lay the groundwork for the fourth and last bailout evaluation, expected to be completed in May.
The government is at the same time expressing confidence that the next loan tranche, amounting to 5.7 billion euros, will be disbursed within March.
Issues that will be discussed in the current talks, with an eye toward the fourth evaluation, include extending to freelance professionals, and for tax debt of over 50,000 euros, the right to pay taxes in 120 instalments.
In addition, creditors want to make it more difficult to get trial postponements in lower courts.
The creditors want to make stricter the terms under which one can protect their home from seizure under the “Katseli law”, so that those who have money and don’t pay can be excluded. Hence, they want to be able to open the bank accounts of those who seek the protection of the law and to expel from the programme individuals who have hidden their assets purposely.
The fourth evaluation involves a whopping 88 preconditions, including new fiscal measures, revamping the handicapped benefits system, revising the Katseli law, promoting privatisation – mainly in the energy sector – and changing the ENFIA real estate tax system.
