Welcome to European Tribune. It's gone a bit quiet around here these days, but it's still going.
Display:
Greek bailout: Athens submits reform plan - live updates | Business | The Guardian

Reuters has now published the full text of Greece's reforms.

At first glance it is broadly as expected -- lot of commitments to reform the tax base, fight corruption, and improve Greece's public sector.

There are also several clear concessions to its creditors. Athens is pledging not to reverse the state asset sales that are already underway. And it says it will aim to raise minimum wages in a manner that "safeguards competiveness and employment prospects", and in consultation with its partners.

The government is also promising help for families and businesses who simply cannot pay their debt, while clamping down hard on "strategic defaulters".

It's rather long, but I've pasted it in full here
I. Fiscal structural policies

Tax policies - Greece commits to: 

Reform VAT policy, administration and enforcement. Robust efforts will be made to improve collection and fight evasion making full use of electronic means and other technological innovations. VAT policy will be rationalised in relation to rates that will be streamlined in a manner that maximises actual revenues without a negative impact on social justice, and with a view to limiting exemptions while eliminating unreasonable discounts.

 Modify the taxation of collective investment and income tax expenditures which will be integrated in the income tax code.

 Broaden definition of tax fraud and evasion while disbanding tax immunity.

 Modernising the income tax code and eliminating from it tax code exemptions and replacing them, when necessary, with social justice enhancing measures.

 Resolutely enforce and improve legislation on transfer pricing.

 Work toward creating a new culture of tax compliance to ensure that all sections of society, and especially the well-off, contribute fairly to the financing of public policies. In this context, establish with the assistance of European and international partners, a wealth database that assists the tax authorities in gauging the veracity of previous income tax returns.

Public Finance Management

Greece will: 

Adopt amendments to the Organic Budget Law and take steps to improve public finance management. Budget implementation will be improved and clarified as will control and reporting responsibilities. Payment procedures will be modernised and accelerated while providing a higher degree of financial and budgetary flexibility and accountability for independent and/or regulatory entities.

 Devise and implement a strategy on the clearance of arrears, tax refunds and pension claims.

 Turn the already established (though hitherto dormant) Fiscal Council into a fully operational entity.

Revenue administration

Greece will modernise the tax and custom administrations benefiting from available technical assistance. To this end Greece will:  Enhance the openness, transparency and international reach of the process by which the General Secretary of the General Secretariat of Public Revenues is appointed, monitored in terms of performance, and replaced.

 Strengthen the independence of the General Secretariat of Public Revenues (GSPR), if necessary through further legislation, from all sorts of interference (political or otherwise) while guaranteeing full accountability and transparency of its operations. To this end, the government and the GSPR will make full use of available technical assistance.

 Staff adequately, both quantitatively and qualitatively, the GSPR and in particular the high wealth and large debtors units of the revenue administration and ensure that it has strong investigative/prosecution powers, and resources building on SDOE's capacities, so as to target effectively tax fraud by, and tax arrears of, high income social groups. Consider the merits of integrating SDOE into GSPR.

 Augment inspections, risk-based audits, and collection capacities while seeking to integrate the functions of revenue and social security collection across the general government.

Public spending -

The Greek authorities will:  Review and control spending in every area of government spending (e.g. education, defence, transport, local government, social benefits)

 Work toward drastically improving the efficiency of central and local government administered departments and units by targeting budgetary processes, management restructuring, and reallocation of poorly deployed resources.

 Identify cost saving measures through a thorough spending review of every Ministry and rationalisation of non-salary and non-pension expenditures which, at present, account for an astounding 56% of total public expenditure.

 Implement legislation (currently in draft form at the General Accounts Office - GAO) to review non-wage benefits expenditure across the public sector.

 Validate benefits through cross checks within the relevant authorities and registries (e.g. Tax Number Registry, AMKA registry) that will help identify non-eligible beneficiaries.

 Control health expenditure and improve the provision and quality of medical services, while granting universal access. In this context, the government intends to table specific proposals in collaboration with European and international institutions, including the OECD.

Social security reform -

Greece is committed to continue modernising the pension system. The authorities will:  Continue to work on administrative measures to unify and streamline pension policies and eliminate loopholes and incentives that give rise to an excessive rate of early retirements throughout the economy and, more specifically, in the banking and public sectors.

 Consolidate pension funds to achieve savings.

 Phase out charges on behalf of `third parties' (nuisance charges) in a fiscally neutral manner.

 Establish a closer link between pension contributions and income, streamline benefits, strengthen incentives to declare paid work, and provide targeted assistance to employees between 50 and 65, including through a Guaranteed Basic Income scheme, so as to eliminate the social and political pressure for early retirement which over-burdens the pension funds.

Public administration & corruption - Greece wants a modern public administration. It will:  Turn the fight against corruption into a national priority and operationalize fully the National Plan Against Corruption.

 Target fuel and tobacco products' smuggling, monitor prices of imported goods (to prevent revenue losses during the importation process), and tackle money laundering. The government intends immediately to set itself ambitious revenue targets, in these areas, to be pursued under the coordination of the newly established position of Minister of State.

 Reduce (a) the number of Ministries (from 16 to 10), (b) the number of `special advisors' in general government; and (c)

fringe benefits of ministers, Members of Parliament and top officials (e.g. cars, travel expenses, allowances)

 Tighten the legislation concerning the funding of political parties and include maximum levels of borrowing from financial and other institutions.

 Activate immediately the current (though dormant) legislation that regulates the revenues of media (press and electronic), ensuring (through appropriately designed auctions) that they pay the state market prices for frequencies used, and prohibits the continued operation of permanently loss-making media outlets (without a transparent process of recapitalisation)

 Establish a transparent, electronic, real time institutional framework for public tenders/procurement - re-establishing DIAVGEIA (a side-lined online public registry of activities relating to public procurement)

 Reform the public sector wage grid with a view to decompressing the wage distribution through productivity gains and appropriate recruitment policies without reducing the current wage floors but safeguarding that the public sector's wage bill will not increase  Rationalise non-wage benefits, to reduce overall expenditure, without imperilling the functioning of the public sector and in accordance with EU good practices  Promote measures to: improve recruitment mechanisms, encourage merit-based managerial appointments, base staff appraisals on genuine evaluation, and establish fair processes for maximising mobility of human and other resources within the public sector

II. Financial stability

Instalment Schemes.

Greece commits to:

Improve swiftly, in agreement with the institutions, the legislation for repayments of tax and social security arrears  Calibrate instalment schemes in a manner that helps discriminate efficiently between: (a) strategic default/non-payment and (b) inability to pay; targeting case (a) individuals/firms by means of civil and criminal procedures (especially amongst high income groups) while offering case (b) individuals/firms repayment terms in a manner that enables potentially solvent enterprises to survive, averts free-riding, annuls moral hazard, and reinforces social responsibility as well as a proper re-payment culture.

 De-criminalise lower income debtors with small liabilities 

Step up enforcement methods and procedures, including the legal framework for collecting unpaid taxes and effectively implement collection tools

Banking and Non-Performing loans.

Greece is committed to:  Banks that are run on sound commercial/banking principles  Utilise fully the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund and ensure, in collaboration with the SSM, the ECB and the European Commission, that it plays well its key role of securing the banking sector's stability and its lending on commercial basis while complying with EU competition rules.

 Dealing with non-performing loans in a manner that considers fully the banks' capitalisation (taking into account the adopted Code of Conduct for Banks), the functioning of the judiciary system, the state of the real estate market, social justice issues, and any adverse impact on the government's fiscal position.

 Collaborating with the banks' management and the institutions to avoid, in the forthcoming period, auctions of the main residence of households below a certain income threshold, while punishing strategic defaulters, with a view to: (a) maintaining society's support for the government's broad reform program, (b)

preventing a further fall in real estate asset prices (that would have an adverse effect on the banks' own portfolio), (c)

minimising the fiscal impact of greater homelessness, and (d)

promoting a strong payment culture. Measures will be taken to support the most vulnerable households who are unable to service their loans  Align the out-of-court workout law with the instalment schemes after their amendment, to limit risks to public finances and the payment culture, while facilitating private debt restructuring.

 Modernise bankruptcy law and address the backlog of cases

III. Policies to promote growth

Privatisation and public asset management:

To attract investment in key sectors and utilise the state's assets efficiently, the Greek authorities will:  Commit not to roll back privatisations that have been completed. Where the tender process has been launched the government will respect the process, according to the law.

 Safeguard the provision of basic public goods and services by privatised firms/industries in line with national policy goals and in compliance with EU legislation.

 Review privatisations that have not yet been launched, with a view to improving the terms so as to maximise the state's long term benefits, generate revenues, enhance competition in the local economies, promote national economic recovery, and stimulate long term growth prospects.

 Adopt, henceforth, an approach whereby each new case will be examined separately and on its merits, with an emphasis on long leases, joint ventures (private-public collaboration) and contracts that maximise not only government revenues but also prospective levels of private investment.

 Unify (HRDAF) with various public asset management agencies (which are currently scattered across the public sector) with a view to developing state assets and enhancing their value through microeconomic and property rights' reforms.

Labor market reforms

Greece commits to: 

Achieve EU best practice across the range of labour market legislation through a process of consultation with the social partners while benefitting from the expertise and existing input of the ILO, the OECD and the available technical assistance.

 Expand and develop the existing scheme that provides temporary employment for the unemployed, in agreement with partners and when fiscal space permits and improve the active labour market policy programmes with the aim to updating the skills of the long term unemployed.

 Phasing in a new `smart' approach to collective wage bargaining that balances the needs for flexibility with fairness. This includes the ambition to streamline and over time raise minimum wages in a manner that safeguards competiveness and employment prospects. The scope and timing of changes to the minimum wage will be made in consultation with social partners and the European and international institutions, including the ILO, and take full account of advice from a new independent body on whether changes in wages are in line with productivity developments and competitiveness.

Product market reforms and a better business environment

As part of a new reform agenda, Greece remains committed to: 

Removing barriers to competition based on input from the OECD.

 Strengthen the Hellenic Competition Commission.

 Introduce actions to reduce the burdens of administrative burden of bureaucracy in line with the OECD's input, including legislation that bans public sector units from requesting (from citizens and business) documents certifying information that the state already possesses (within the same or some other unit).

 Better land use management, including policies related to spatial planning, land use, and the finalisation of a proper Land Registry  Pursue efforts to lift disproportionate and unjustified restrictions in regulated professions as part of the overall strategy to tackle vested interests.

 Align gas and electricity market regulation with EU good practices and legislation Reform of the judicial system - The Greek government will:  Improve the organisation of courts through greater specialisation and, in this context, adopt a new Code of Civil Procedure.

 Promote the digitisation of legal codes and the electronic submission system, and governance, of the judicial system.

Statistics - The Greek government reaffirms its readiness to:  Honour fully the Commitment on Confidence in Statistics, and in particular the institutional independence of ELSTAT, ensuring that ELSTAT has the necessary resources to implement its work programme.

 Guarantee the transparency and propriety of the process of appointment of the ELSTAT President in September 2015, in cooperation with EUROSTAT.

IV. Humanitarian Crisis -

The Greek government affirms its plan to: 

Address needs arising from the recent rise in absolute poverty (inadequate access to nourishment, shelter, health services and basic energy provision) by means of highly targeted non-pecuniary measures (e.g. food stamps).

 Do so in a manner that is helpful to the reforming of public administration and the fight against bureaucracy/corruption (e.g. the issuance of a Citizen Smart Card that can be used as an ID card, in the Health System, as well as for gaining access to the food stamp program etc.).

 Evaluate the pilot Minimum Guaranteed Income scheme with a view to extending it nationwide.

 Ensure that its fight against the humanitarian crisis has no negative fiscal effect.



It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II
by eurogreen on Tue Feb 24th, 2015 at 06:14:53 AM EST
VAT policy will be rationalised in relation to rates that will be streamlined in a manner that maximises actual revenues without a negative impact on social justice

They should put a high VAT rate on luxury goods, including German cars...

"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

by Melanchthon on Tue Feb 24th, 2015 at 06:24:56 AM EST
[ Parent ]
And what about imposing VAT on some types of financial services?
by gk (gk (gk quattro due due sette @gmail.com)) on Tue Feb 24th, 2015 at 06:31:38 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Especially on the more prevalent 'financial disservices'.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Tue Feb 24th, 2015 at 09:18:54 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Identify cost saving measures through a thorough spending review of every Ministry and rationalisation of non-salary and non-pension expenditures which, at present, account for an astounding 56% of total public expenditure.
Anyone know what the comparable figure is for other countries?
by gk (gk (gk quattro due due sette @gmail.com)) on Tue Feb 24th, 2015 at 06:37:59 AM EST
[ Parent ]
If you want to read them on PDF...

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Feb 24th, 2015 at 06:47:57 AM EST
[ Parent ]
the issuance of a Citizen Smart Card that can be used as an ID card, in the Health System, as well as for gaining access to the food stamp program etc.

I just picked this up on re-reading. This amounts to the electronic infrastructure that could support the roll-out of an under-the-radar alternative currency. Food stamps, tax credits, income support...

It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II

by eurogreen on Tue Feb 24th, 2015 at 02:11:52 PM EST
[ Parent ]
See also:
Reform VAT policy, administration and enforcement. Robust efforts will be made to improve collection and fight evasion making full use of electronic means and other technological innovations.
[Public finance] Payment procedures will be modernised and accelerated while providing a higher degree of financial and budgetary flexibility and accountability for independent and/or regulatory entities.
* Devise and implement a strategy on the clearance of arrears, tax refunds and pension claims.
Establish a transparent, electronic, real time institutional framework for public tenders/procurement - re-establishing DIAVGEIA (a side-lined online public registry of activities relating to public procurement)
Improve swiftly, in agreement with the institutions, the legislation for repayments of tax and social security arrears
Step up enforcement methods and procedures, including the legal framework for collecting unpaid taxes and effectively implement collection tools
issuance of a Citizen Smart Card that can be used as an ID card, in the Health System, as well as for gaining access to the food stamp program etc


A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Feb 24th, 2015 at 03:28:55 PM EST
[ Parent ]
It's not like Varoufakis doesn't play with open cards...

Can a Bitcoin-style virtual currency solve the Greek financial crisis? | Comment is free | The Guardian

If things go badly for Greece, finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has said he would consider creating a parallel digital currency, using Bitcoin's digital security and transparency, but doing the exact opposite of what the money fundamentalists intend.
by generic on Tue Feb 24th, 2015 at 03:51:09 PM EST
[ Parent ]
This reminds me of the old tally stick system in use up until the 19th century in the UK as well as in much of Europe during the middle ages. It also combines some of the features of Tax Anticipation Notes as advocated by Warren Mosler. Perhaps Greece could create enough Digital Euros to cover existing tax arrears. Even a fraction of that amount would constitute a serious stimulus when injected into the Greek economy. A further advantage is that this new money would be more likely to stay in Greece, where there is an assured use for it as payment of taxes.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Tue Feb 24th, 2015 at 04:00:20 PM EST
[ Parent ]
But, to create electronic money, don't you first need electronics?
by Upstate NY on Wed Feb 25th, 2015 at 09:34:52 AM EST
[ Parent ]
the issuance of a Citizen Smart Card that can be used as an ID card, in the Health System, as well as for gaining access to the food stamp program etc.

It's in the program...

You hand out smart cards to the entire population. They are initially intended for accessing the health system, and for food stamps. Every citizen has an account created by the government. Retailers and health providers need terminals, obviously.

Then, some time later, ta-daa, you roll out Citizen Smart Card 2.0. It's the card you already have, but now you have an "Air Miles" account, with an initial free allocation on it. You can use your Air Miles to pay your tax. Retailers who accept food stamps will accept them for payment too, using them for their own tax liabilities, and exchanging them with other companies (all companies can have an Air Miles account too). Government income support would also be paid through the system, perhaps pensions...

Pretty quickly you have critical mass for a purely electronic currency -- I don't see any immediate need for physical scrip.

It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II

by eurogreen on Wed Feb 25th, 2015 at 10:27:29 AM EST
[ Parent ]
And you need to wire up all stores anyway since you want to collect VAT effectively. Who can object to that.
by generic on Wed Feb 25th, 2015 at 10:38:19 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Can't wait to see the face of the Eurogroup chairman in June...

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Feb 25th, 2015 at 10:45:12 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Still this presupposes that they make it to June. They'll have to fight the notTroika every step of the way. Have they even gotten a single cent yet? Of course it doesn't get easier to provoke a crisis once the can is bouncing down the road and the ECB governing council will probably be less hostile to Greece in another rotation. When was the timing for those rotations decided anyway?
by generic on Wed Feb 25th, 2015 at 11:12:38 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Also we shouldn't forget that the Eurogroup's record of keeping to its commitments is less than stellar.
by generic on Wed Feb 25th, 2015 at 11:21:44 AM EST
[ Parent ]
The rotation was decided in September.

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Feb 25th, 2015 at 11:27:35 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Democracy is great isn't it?
by generic on Wed Feb 25th, 2015 at 11:30:16 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Who says June says April. The first order of business is to get past the liquidity crunch in mid-March. But they can already start legislating and implementing parts of their program. It will be interesting to see which are the first parts of the agreement that they implement.

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Feb 25th, 2015 at 11:29:32 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Or rather this:

BITCOIN: A flawed currency blueprint with a potentially useful application for the Eurozone | Yanis Varoufakis

BITCOIN: A flawed currency blueprint with a potentially useful application for the Eurozone
by generic on Tue Feb 24th, 2015 at 03:52:55 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I must say I don't remember reading this before. Which sadly doesn't men I didn't.

YV's FT coins are pretty different from the proposals for tax anticipation notes we had so far. First their face value is greater than 1 when held for a certain time and used to extinguish tax liabilities. Secondly they can be exchanged to € at will. Finally he envisioned people buying them on their own initiative.

On the face of it I don't really see the upside here. Since the Greece has only limited hard Euro funding there is some risk here of a bank run. Then there is the distributional effect of and opportunity cost for what amounts to a tax break for people with savings.

Still, it's a year old, not a complete proposal and he wasn't a minister at the time.

by generic on Tue Feb 24th, 2015 at 06:28:57 PM EST
[ Parent ]
But it constitutes a savings for any who use the currency 'at maturity' to pay taxes. Probably the financial sector, if this comes to pass, will find a way to have some sort of convertible instrument/swap that earns interest as euros and then is convertible back to its digital form to pay taxes. If so the 'loanable funds' nuts will be ecstatic, and, given that the ECB is not really a central bank and the Euro is not really a sovereign currency, this might actually be true for this case. It might increase 'loanable funds' from Greek banks. The Greek central bank might treat it differently than the ECB with regard to regulations. Others could say better than I.  

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Wed Feb 25th, 2015 at 01:47:16 AM EST
[ Parent ]
...opportunity cost for what amounts to a tax break for people with savings.

For Greeks able to save or invest, with an interest in both activities, and a need to pay taxes, the Greek CB could structure these digital euros like one year treasury notes, accept them for 'repo' payable in another euro pegged non-interest bearing, domestic only currency which could be digital, and then say: "Look! Loanable funds!" This would then create, through further repo, a la Repo 101, additional loan capacity equal to the total of such initial 1% interest bearing bitcoins divided by the haircut. If some of this new money leaked out of Greece as payments for imports, so long as those accepting them clearly understood what they were, where is the harm to Greece? It would fix a lot, leave the hawks with another dilemma and provide another opportunity for the Eurogroup to show its revealed preference between Grexit and reasonable economic behavior. Were it working well in Greece by next fall it could become a major problem for EPP in the next election cycle.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Wed Feb 25th, 2015 at 11:16:49 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Sounds pretty good to me. Lots of good structural reform stuff in there. If Syriza can manage to do even half of these things, they'll be the best Greek government in decades.

And that's without even mentioning their policies on fiscal issues.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

by Starvid on Wed Feb 25th, 2015 at 04:26:28 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Display:

Occasional Series