Auctions: Agreement or regulation for freezing in 2014 too

Troika leaves open issues with the Greek government, and departed with Yannis Stournaras for the Eurogroup in Brussels, without offering something tangible for primary residence auctions, EAS, VAT in catering and property tax.

As well informed source said a week ago in protothema.gr, “the Greek government can only be sure for one thing: that on December 20 Thomsen and his gang will stop dealing with Greece because their services in Washington, Brussels and Frankfurt will close and they do not want to lose their holidays."

Thus, even today’s meeting of Stournaras with his European counterparts seems uncertain. "The Troika report will probably be positive, but if even one finance minister disagrees…” a Finance Ministry member said.

Government officials now say they might need to legislate again unilaterally for auctions and VAT in catering at Thursday or Friday the latest. If they close the issue of EAS, the disbursement for the tranche of 1 billion euros is expected to be approved Thursday and the money will come later this year, to avoid having to issue treasury bills for the government to pay its current obligations.

Appointment for new measures

Returning in January, the Thomsen team will ask for the "bill" for all the matters it did not ratify and perhaps will raise its amount to 2 billion euros.

Specifically, troika:

- did not approve the budget passed by the government as it calculated the budgetary gap of 2014 by 900 million euros higher

- it believes that the single property taxes will collect 335 million euros less (2.315 billion instead of 2.65 billion euros)

At the 1.2 billion euros should be added:

- the cost of the unilateral extension of the VAT reduction in catering (deviation over 200 million euros)

- costs for banks and their recapitalization from the extension of auctions. Troika has insisted on more details from the BoG

The MoF excludes any possibility for horizontal measures that will affect wages and pensions.

Auctions

The consultation of the Development Ministry with Troika for the primary residence auctions will continue through telephones and emails. If an agreement is not reached by Tuesday evening, the solution the ministry is thinking about is to legislate unilaterally for an extension.

According to information, however, if the government is forced to testify a Legislative Act, this will substantially retain the existing law, at least until early 2014. But if it deposits a new law, then there will be major changes in the design and qualification criteria for borrowers in the protection scheme from auctions.