Greece, Troika Wrangle Over Surplus

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’ vow to return 70 percent of an expected 1.5 billion euro ($2.07 billion) primary surplus to people most affected by crushing austerity measures is being challenged by international lenders who want more of it diverted to pay state debts to suppliers and for measures to boost growth.
That’s one of the most contentious problems on the table with the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB) in talks that have sputtered since September, 2013 and are holding up release of a long-delayed nine billion euros ($12.46 billion) installment.
Samaras wants the negotiations wrapped up before critical May elections for Greek municipalities and the European Parliament with polls showing his New Democracy Conservatives have slipped further behind the major opposition Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA). The government’s coalition partner, the PASOK Socialists, are irrelevant, the surveys showed.
If the Troika gets its way and Samaras reneges on his promise, low-income pensioners and members of the police and security services may get a smaller portion of a primary surplus, which is to be calculated in a different way, than originally planned.
Instead of giving them 70 percent of the primary surplus, the Troika wants the amount determined by how much Greece overshoots its 2014 primary surplus target of 2.9 billion euros ($4 billion).
Also holding up  deal are delays in firing public workers, breaking professional monopolies such as pharmacists, and a lingering dispute over whether Greece should fulfill the entire so-called Toolkit of 153 unfinished reforms recommended  by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Greece’s reform progress was the focus of European Commission Task Force’s sixth report released March 11 that showed about 80 percent of EU subsidies have been utilized.