Athens--Cash-strapped Greece wrangled Monday with its creditors over a new package of reforms needed to unlock vital bailout funds as Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras prepared to face grilling in parliament on the negotiations.
Experts from the IMF and the EU are scrutinising a list of proposed reforms that Athens says would raise an extra three billion euros ($3.3 billion) for government coffers without resorting to wage and pension cuts.
But European sources accused Athens of holding up progress in the negotiations, while at home, the opposition has levelled the same charge at Tsipras's government.
Opposition MPs are expected to take Tsipras to task when parliament sits later Tuesday.
They have accused the prime minister of selling out on his election promises, claiming that he has secretly conceded austerity reforms in order to unlock 7.2 billion euros in aid funds by the end-April deadline.
Tsipras's government has proposed to levy higher taxes on the rich, as well as measures to tackle tax evasion and illegal fuel and cigarette smuggling.
But a European source told news portal in.gr that Greece's proposals still had to be fleshed out, and that "amateurism" by Greek officials was hindering progress.
Junior finance minister Dimitris Mardas on Monday said however that the creditors were pushing for lower pensions and more mass layoffs -- measures which the radical government has pledged to resist.
"The issue of mass layoffs is under debate...this is a red line and we cannot cross it...as are pensions," he told To Vima radio.
The EU and IMF are also pushing the radical government elected in January to abandon its plans to block a number of key privatisations.
But Mardas insisted that Athens would now no longer "sell its assets at humiliating prices."
AFP
