Between Greek high responsabilities and German high responsabilities exists a subservient Portuguese Government ...
German Der
Spiegel (http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/greece-deal-shows-hostility-between-schaeuble-and-varoufakis-a-1020968.html):
«Portuguese Finance
Minister Maria Luís Albuquerque (...) was a guest speaker at the Bertelsmann
Stiftung and used her talk to review the significant progress her country has
made since almost going broke four years ago. The country's finances are now
under control and economic growth has returned. [IS NOT TRUE! Increase of GDP was in 2014 only 0,17% if we don´t sum TVA effect, Inventories changeseffect, statistical biases]
"My dear friend,"
Schäuble addressed her pleasantly. The warmth in his voice made him sound like
a teacher who had just barely managed to prevent a student from failing out of
school. Why, he seemed to be thinking, can't all finance ministers in Europe be like Maria Luís Albuquerque?»
«(…) constructive ambiguity
(…) From today we are going to be co-authors of our destiny. (…) Like Odysseus,
sometimes you have to tie yourself to a mast in order to avoid the sirens and
get where you need to go» Yanis Varoufakis
«What the Greeks must now do is not exactly
what they promised in the campaign. But
that's not my problem.» Wolfgang Schäuble
«Estamos comprometidos em ter equilíbrio orçamental. Se eu tiver que impor
um imposto especial, fá-lo-ei, mas sobre aqueles que podem pagar (...) Não
vamos pedir dinheiro aqueles que sofrem (...) Estamos interessados naqueles que
têm dinheiro e que nunca pagaram. Eles são o nosso alvo e seremos implacáveis
(...)»Yanis Varoufakis
http://www.ionline.pt/artigos/mundo-dinheiro/grecia-declaracao-guerra-varoufakis
As medidas propostas pelo Governo grego são as seguintes (
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-02-24/troika-happy-revised-list-greek-reform-promises-full-varoufakis-lette):
«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.»
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