O Governo grego fez chegar hoje à Comissão Europeia uma carta com sete
páginas onde se compromete a uma vasta lista de intenções de reforma com pouco
detalhe, mas que será aprofundada até ao final de abril. No documento ficam
promessas de controlar a despesa em todos os setores do governo, uma reforma
abrangente do sistema de pensões e cortes profundos no número de Ministérios,
de consultores do governo, dos benefícios dos ministérios e dos deputados. A lista vai ser avaliada pelos ministros das Finanças da zona euro hoje,
numa teleconferência. Carta completa:
"Dear President of the
Eurogroup, In the Eurogroup of 20 February 2015 the Greek government was
invited to present to the institutions, by Monday 23rd February 2015, a first
comprehensive list of reform measures it is envisaging, to be further specified
and agreed by the end of April 2015.
In addition to codifying its
reform agenda, in accordance with PM Tsipras’ programmatic statement to
Greece’s Parliament, the Greek government also committed to working in close
agreement with European partners and institutions, as well as with the
International Monetary Fund, and take actions that strengthen fiscal
sustainability, guarantee financial stability and promote economic recovery.
The first comprehensive list
of reform measures follows below, as envisaged by the Greek government. It is
our intention to implement them while drawing upon available technical
assistance and financing from the European Structural and Investment Funds.
Truly
Yanis Varoufakis
Minister of Finance
Hellenic Republic
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 ongenuine 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” (fonte:
Observador)