The Greek government tabled its proposals consisting of measures amounting to 1.8bln Euros till 2018 at the Euroworkign Group (EWG) session, Thursday in Brussels. Greek Deputy Finance Minister George Chouliarakis, who represented Greece at the meeting presented the measures to the country’s creditors pledging to pass the new package of indirect taxes, which include hikes in the VAT and the Single Property Tax (ENFIA), along with the legal clauses regarding the sale of loans to foreign funds within the next 10 days.

According to EU sources, all the prior-actions will have to be voted in before May 24, allowing the EWG to prepare the relevant documentation for the Eurogroup to rubber stamp when it convenes on May 24. However, the disagreement between the IMF and the EU on the effectiveness of the measures still remains, with the Fund claiming the 3.6bln contingency measures must be passed immediately. These include a rise in VAT to 24% on electricity and water supply, instead of raising indirect taxes.

The issue of when the automatic measures will ‘kick in’ is also a matter of contention between Greece and its lenders, with the Troika suggesting that any necessary measures should be automatically taken every 3 months after a review, while Greece wanting this to happen on an annual basis following the publication of the Eurostat report.

Some of the measures included in the EWG papers were a new hike of the VAT from 23% to 24%, something expected to drive up the prices of many products and services; a rise in special fuel levies, an increase in special tax coefficients for beer; scrapping the exemption of 50% taxes on alcohol sold in the Dodecanese; new consumption taxes on coffee; a new full capacity tax for hotels over 2 stars; a permanent tax on lucky games; a 5% tax contribution for the use of internet, as well as a 10% contribution for cable TV subscribers. Finally, a 0.2% of GDP is estimated to come from slashing wages in the public sector.