Gov't seeks cash as more payments loom

The government will on Tuesday begin debating measures to boost liquidity as the cash-starved country braces for more than 2 billion euros in debt payments on Friday.

Unable to access bailout funding and locked out of capital markets, the government will outline emergency plans to Parliament to increase funding. Payments due March 20 include interest on a swap originally arranged by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., said a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified publicly discussing the derivative.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras?s government is burning through cash while trying to get its creditors ? eurozone member states, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund ? to release more money from its 240 billion-euro bailout program. European governments have said they won?t disburse any more emergency loans unless the government in Athens implements a set of economic overhauls agreed last month, including pension and sales tax reform.

?As days go by, room for maneuver becomes ever smaller,? said Theodore Pelagidis, an Athens-based senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

?The impression given is that there?s no plan A or plan B. There?s nothing.?

The government?s plan includes eliminating fines on those who submit overdue taxes by March 27 to encourage payment, helping cover salaries and pensions due at the end of the month. The bill also requires pension funds and public entities to invest reserves held at the Bank of Greece in government securities and repurchase agreements, and transfers 556 million euros from the country?s bank recapitalization fund to the state. A vote on the measures is scheduled for Wednesday.

The government said on Saturday it has a plan to ?enhance its liquidity?...