Greece proposes hiring tourists as tax inspectors in bid to unlock bailout funds

Greece has proposed a series of new measures – including the deployment of tourists as temporary tax inspectors – in a bid to unlock remaining funds due to the country under its bailout.

Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis outlined a number of radical proposals, including a plan to issue online gambling licenses and recruit temporary staff to act as undercover tax inspectors, in a letter to euro group chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem.

In an 11-page letter, Mr Varoufakis says that hiring undercover tax inspectors who would be paid on an hourly basis would have the capacity "to shift attitudes very quickly".

The plans also include more traditional reforms, including a new “fiscal council” to monitor government spending and a new plan to collect unpaid taxes.

While the proposals may be considered by euro zone finance ministers at a euro group meeting in Brussels on Monday, a senior euro zone official stressed that serious technical talks were in their infancy, though contacts between the Greek government and senior EU officials were ongoing.

It is two weeks since Greece secured a four-month temporary extension of its loan programme from international lenders after a month-long standoff, but the government must commit to further reform measures in order to unlock funds.

Speaking at the ECB's regular interest rate-setting meeting on Thursday, European Central Bank president Mario Draghi defended the ECB's treatment of Greece, pointing out that the bank had lent €100 billion to the country in the past two months, equivalent to 68 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP).

He said the ECB had again increased the ceiling on emergency lending assistance to Greece by another €500 million to €69 billion.

Meanwhile, Greece denied on Friday that prime minister Alexis Tsipras sought an emergency meeting yesterday with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker to discuss emergency funding.

Germany's Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that Mr Tsipras had sought an emergency meeting with Mr Juncker on Thursday, but that the European Commission president refused to receive him until after next week's euro group gathering.

Facing loan repayments of about €6.85 billion in coming weeks, Mr Tsipras has reportedly ordered the state pension fund and other public institutions to hand over their reserves to the state. A Greek government spokesman denied an emergency meeting had been sought with Mr Juncker but confirmed the two men had telephoned on Thursday with a view to meeting next week.

Speaking in Brussels on Thursday, a European Commission spokeswoman said that Mr Juncker and Mr Tsipras were in “constant telephone contact,” but declined to comment on the specific content of Thursday’s phone call. She said that Greece’s “financing needs” were a topic of continual discussion.

In an interview in Der Spiegel due to be published on Saturday, Mr Tsipras urged the ECB to drop its opposition to issuing treasury or T-Bills to fund Greece. Not doing so, he warned, would see a "return of the thriller we saw before February 20th", when the most recent programme extension was agreed. On Thursday, ECB president Mario Draghi said the bank would not raise the limit on the issuance of T-bills by Greece, pointing out that the EU treaty prohibited monetary financing of governments.

Mr Tsipras accused the ECB of “still holding the rope that lies around our neck”, saying the question of bridging financing for Athens was a decision for “politicians and not technocrats”.

The hard-left Greek prime minister said he “loved Europe” and did not favour a Greek exit from the currency union, which he compared to a sweater with a loose thread of wool.

“As soon as it begins to come apart, then there is no stopping it,” he told the magazine.

The latest remarks by the Greek prime minister in the German media drew a cool response in Berlin.

A spokesman for the finance ministry agreement on releasing funds for Greece depended on the acceptability of reform detail presented at next Monday’s eurogroup meeting.

“The payment of the last (funding) tranche is dependent that the programme is completed successfully,” said the spokesman.

Additional reporting: Financial Times Service