Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 15-04-28

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Political negotiation team to have outline of reforms draft bill ready by Tuesday

[01] Political negotiation team to have outline of reforms draft bill ready by Tuesday

The outline of a draft bill that will codify the reform proposals included in the list prepared by Varoufakis for the ongoing negotiations with the institutions will be ready by Tuesday evening and be put to discussion before the cabinet on Thursday, they said.

Varoufakis noted that the list was added to substantively. It would not include nonperforming loans or the issue of a bad bank, he underlined, but would include provisions on social insurance and taxation (including the tax service's administration and improved collection of VAT). The issue of VAT rates would be negotiated in June, he said, while a tax on overnight reservations in hotels and other tourist housing would not be included at this phase.

The provisions, he said, are "our own initiatives, and I hope they will be agreed upon by the institutions. If we agree, that can provide the basis for a medium-term agreement."

He said that the government would "do the impossible in order to achieve an honourable agreement. Negotiations will be very difficult, among the most complicated," especially he said because institutions changed views constantly. "We respect the procedures and [our loan] partners, but we have a popular mandate to change the philosophy of a programme that has failed," he added.

Tsakalotos said that "we always learn from our experiences and our mistakes; our victories and our successes are as collective as our mistakes are. That's how we will continue - collectively. The government is united, and the negotiating team is united."

[File photo: Tsakalotos [L], Varoufakis [R] in Greek Parliament, Feb. 2015, during PM's policy statement.ANA-MPA]

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