Subject: Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 17-03-10 From: "HR-Net News Distribution Manager" CONTENTS [01] Tax revenue surpassed budget targets in February [02] Disagreements with IMF on labour issues persist, senior labour ministry source says [03] There is no light in the tunnel with EU's strategy, says KKE leader Koutsoumbas --------------------------------------------------------------------------- [01] Tax revenue surpassed budget targets in February Tax revenues – pre-returns - surpassed budget targets by 160 million euros in February, the Finance ministry said in a report released on Thursday. The ministry report said that in the two-month period from January to February, tax revenues – pre-returns - surpassed budget targets by 5.46 pct, confirming the government economic team's estimates that a trend which helped create a higher budget primary surplus in 2016 will continue in 2017. Based on provisional figures, revenue – pre-returns - totaled 4.264 billion euros in February, up 3.90 pct from a budget target of 4.104 billion. Tax returns totaled 331 million euros in the month, surpassing the budget target by 33.47 pct. Tax revenue – excluding returns - totaled 3.933 billion euros, up 2.0 pct from targets. In the two-month period, tax revenue – pre-returns - surpassed budget targets by 5.46 pct, tax returns were 18.57 pct up from targets and revenues after tax returns surpassed targets by 4.52 pct. [02] Disagreements with IMF on labour issues persist, senior labour ministry source says There are still disagreements with the International Monetary Fund over labour issues and also on the time when pension reforms should go into effect, a senior labour ministry source revealed on Thursday after a meeting between the government and the institutions was concluded. The source reported significant progress during the latest round of talks to complete the second review and said this had also been noted by the institutions. At the same time, the source added, the Greek side was confronted by the IMF's "ideological obsessions" with regard to labour law, especially with regard to mass lay-offs and lockouts. According to the source, the IMF simply repeated its known positions on these issues and refused to take European court rulings or standard European practice into account. [03] There is no light in the tunnel with EU's strategy, says KKE leader Koutsoumbas "The alleged anti-memorandum policy leads to impasses" stated Communist Party (KKE) leader Dimitris Koutsoumbas speaking to SKAI TV on Friday. He claimed that SYRIZA is a classic bourgeois party noting that those that supported and participated in SYRIZA's first government bear huge responsibilities and attributed their stance to illusions, contradictions and deadlock thoughts. There is no light in the tunnel with EU's strategy because even in countries without memorandum as France, which has a strong capitalist economy, policies against the workers are applied and extended" underlined Koutsoumbas. He clarified that KKE supports Greece's exit from the European Union noting that a wide popular agreement is necessary for the change of the economy and the changes are not very simple. A relevant mobilisation should exist at global level in the same period, said Koutsoumbas.