Two new debt settlement plans in works
The Finance Ministry is planning two new debt settlement plans to ease the pressure on Greece’s 4.2 million state debtors, which will reportedly go into effect as of late March.
The first scheme provides for the repayment of arrears in as many as 120 tranches. It will also also include income criteria and waive overdue fines. The second scheme will concern an increase in the number of installments of the ministry’s fixed payment plan from 12 to 48 tranches, though only under certain conditions. The plans will pertain to salaried workers, freelancers and companies that have shut down and have not entered the out-of-court debt settlement mechanism. They will also address some categories of pensioners.
Sources say the country’s creditors are not opposed to either scheme, but ask that the new plans include various parameters, such as the capacity of each debtors to pay his debts off, so as not to favor strategic defaulters.
That demand is reportedly why senior government officials did not raise the issue during talks with creditor representatives in the last assessment of the Greek economy, as they want to have complete plans to present to the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund before seeking their approval.
