The Express — A document has been released revealing the 140 EU orders Greece must obey before the release of the next instalment of its multi-billion-dollar bailout.
The extensive list of austerity measures, including crippling pension cuts and major tax rises, could devastate the country already, on its knees as it is scrambles to meet strict requirements.
Athens is desperately trying to repay €6 billion of debt by July to meet bail out criteria.
Creditors have demanded actions including reforms in personal income tax, delivering net savings of one per cent of GDP, increase in social security contributions for self-employed, further cuts in health care and social welfare, along with more expenditure cuts in the public sector.
The elimination of low-pensioners poverty allowance (EKAS) will go forward with cuts worth €570 million in 2017, €808 million in 2018 and €853 million in 2019.
The 53-page draft preliminary agreement lists, among others, the following measures to be adopted by Athens:
- a change the way contributions by self-employed professionals and tradesmen are calculated, with the change translating into higher monthly obligatory payments to relevant pension funds
– a cut in the state’s expenditure for subsidized heating oil by 50 percent
- the imposition of a “temporary tax” on shipping companies based in Greece to 2018
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“the harmonisation” of so-called special wage categories for various groups of professionals employed in the public sector, such as military officers, physicians etc.
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activation of a surcharge on overnight stays at hotels and rooms to let, a measure that had been temporarily suspended
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imposition of a tax on short-term leasing of dwellings and rental properties, essentially an attempt to collect an ” Airbnb tax”
List of all 140 prior actions that the Greek government, as published in Naftemporiki newspaper.
“The streamlining of welfare benefits and the abolition of tax expenditures based on the recommendations of the social welfare review, yielding 259 million EUR in 2018.
“The rationalisation of healthcare spending supported by subjecting certain additional categories of expenditure to the closed budget framework and the reduction of the claw-back ceilings, yielding 125 million EUR in 2017 and 188 million EUR cumulatively in 2018.”
Greece has also been ordered to “address and eliminate half (€125million) of the recent overspending on ‘other items’” in the health care budget.
These demands come at a time when EU bosses are keen to stem a rise in populism amid elections in France , Britain and Germany in the coming months.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tspiras has previously warned that Athens will not implement legislated reforms, unless agreements are followed up by a deal on debt relief.
Greece’s crumbling position has raised fears that the country could still collapse, dragging the Euro currency down with it, despite seven years of gruelling recession and austerity imposed from Berlin and Brussels.
Austerity measures have plunged Greece into crisis with huge job losses and billions of euros cut from budgets.
