Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras held a meeting with coalition government Vice-President Evangelos Venizelos, after the heads of the Troika expressed their dissatisfaction on the implementation of the measures agreed upon.
Newly appointed Bank of Greece (BoG) governor Yiannis Stournaras was also present at the meeting, along with Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis.
After the meeting, Venizelos said that Greece has a specific and complete plan for the Greek economy and stated that he is not worried about the Troika’s dissatisfaction.
The Troika expressed their discontent on announcements by Hardouvelis, that tax burdens will be gradually lifted off taxpayers and were dissatisfied with the pace of reform implementation.
Hardouvelis spent approximately two hours with the Troika and most of the time their discussion revolved around the delays caused by recent court rulings on “special public payrolls” concerning uniformed personnel, judges and others, as well as delays in acting on bailout memorandum commitments. They also discussed the situation regarding the Public Power Corporation (PPC) privatization plan (the “Small PPC” bill).
Addressing a conference organized by The Economist on Thursday night, Samaras called for the introduction of a 15% flat tax rate for corporate profits and the lowering of the top rate on income tax to 33% from 42%. He also called for the reduction of value added tax from 23% to 15% in as many cases as possible, the reduction of a special consumption tax on heating oil and the eventual abolition of a solidarity tax on income.
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