Red alert for 2 bil. in additional measures within the year

The government is ready to take additional measures by May amounting to 2 billion euros, by cutting wages and social benefits to ensure the covering of the financial discrepancies recorded in the execution of the current budget.

Although it seems that February ended with revenues of up to 10% -13% due to debt settlements that drove the people to the tax offices, it seems that the shortfall of 1.3 billion euros is not covered by the annual targets recorded in January.

The data on the implementation of the 2012 budget, published yesterday by the Finance ministry, shows that in January this year, total State revenue recorded a shortfall of over 487 million euros against the annual budget forecast, and an excess of 812 million euros. As a result, the deficit amounted to 490 million euros, while in January last year it showed a surplus of 154 million.

According to sources from the General Accounting Office, the shortfall in revenue in the first two months of 2012 will be almost 1 billion and could possibly exceed even 1.5 billion by March, due to the recession mainly linked to the wage cuts and the decline in consumption.

Even after our new loan, the financial needs of the State would have to be covered by state revenues, something that will be facilitated by the reduction of costs that are expected to arise.

Nevertheless, the preliminary announcement of the imposition of additional financial measures is included in the text of the new memorandum: "We are committed to achieving our financial goal and we are ready to take corrective action in case of under-performance. If necessary, measures will include additional reductions in the public sector, social and defense spending."

The new storm

The measures considered for 2012 in the review of the mid-term program include:

-    further cuts in salaries of civil servants\. The maturation of remuneration will be linked more to performance and grade progress, while there is a possibility of an extension to awarding wage maturations from 2 to 3 years at low and middle levels, and from 3 to 4 years at the higher levels

-    elimination of the border regions allowance

-    cuts in salaries of 250,000 government workers (military, police, judges, diplomats, NHS doctors, university professors, etc.) who share specific wage rates, on average at more than 10% as provided in the memorandum

-    cuts in social benefits by the introduction of income and property criteria. The benefit recipients will be significantly reduced, as there will be new, lower income levels and only those that do not exceed these limits will continue to receive these benefits.