Insolvency

The collection of expired dues resulting from unpaid Public Power Corporation (PPC) electricity bills according a specific timetable will constitute a government commitment to its creditors, to be included in the bailout review deal. The same goes for the effort to contain the phenomenon of power theft.

Let's assume that the negotiations with Greece's creditors will come to a close late one night in May with an agreement on debt restructuring and the country's inclusion in the European Central Bank's quantitative easing program. This would likely spark an investment rally and restore the markets' faith in us, possibly to a sufficient degree so they would start lending to us once more.

If Greece is to exit its financial crisis, it will require a restructuring of the national debt combined with substantial reforms, according to the Parliamentary Budget Office, which warned on Wednesday in its intermediate report on the Greek debt that restructuring alone is not the right recipe.

Any enterprises that had expired debts to the banks or the state at the end of 2016 will be able to enter the government's extrajudicial mechanism for the settlement of arrears and get one last chance to stay in business.

Greece's economic crisis is uniquely deep - deeper than the Great Depression of the last century - because Greece's creditors have been uniquely unhelpful in resolving the crisis.

Every year 200,000 enterprises in the EU go bankrupt which results in the loss of 1.7 million jobs. In many cases this can be avoided, announced the European Commission.

The Economy Ministry has proposed to the country's creditors a common haircut system for corporate debts to banks and the state as a part of the out-of-court settlement mechanism, Kathimerini understands.

The proposal foresees all debts being tackled on the same basis, without any limits or restrictions.

The General Secretariat for Public Revenue is currently working feverishly on the terms and conditions for settlements - including write-offs - of debts that corporations owe to the state, ahead of the return of the creditors' representatives next week and the completion of the bill on out-of-court settlements.

The government is putting forward a plan that would allow small enterprises and self-employed professionals to settle debts to social security funds of up to 20,000-30,000 euros.

The government and the country's creditors are seeking ways of persuading enterprises to install point-of-sale terminals and use them for most of their transactions with customers.