The new bankruptcy code to be published for public consultation this week makes company board members liable for civil damages in case they fail to file for bankruptcy within the delays prescribed by the law.

The Finance Ministry will try to provide payments owed to pensioners sooner than later in the fall, officials decided at a meeting Tuesday.

More than 5,700 businesses have applied for loans through the Hellenic Development Bank’s Credit Guarantee Fund.

Banks have provided 3.6 billion euros in loans to businesses through two programs, Business Financing and the Warranty Fund, both designed by the Hellenic Development Bank (HDB). 

The government on Tuesday announced a relief package for the island of Evia, which suffered extensive damage during powerful rainstorms and floods last Sunday which cost the lives of eight people.

Despite talk of Greece’s overdependence on tourism, the sector will seek its share from the Next Generation EU recovery fund and the 32 billion euros Greece stands to receive in grants and loans.

The Greek economic recovery plan to be forwarded to the European Commission in October will attribute great significance to supporting workers through the reduction of taxes and social security contributions that have hampered the real economy and fed the illegal economy, sources from the prime minister’s office say.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing a senior unsecured loan of up to €160 million to Public Power Corporation SA (PPC), the largest power producer and electricity supplier in Greece, to address the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. 

The Greek government has made public the draft of a proposal prepared by a committee under Cypriot Nobel Laureate Christopher Pissarides which aims to promote “the systematic increase of incomes” that “will increase productivity, labor and investment.”

A set of proposals on how Greece should make the best use of some 72 billion euros in grants and loans it is being extended as part of a European Union recovery fund for tackling the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic is expected to be made public Monday. 

The government will seek to focus the utilization of the 32 billion euros of European Commission grants and loans on “a few emblematic actions,” say sources of the new setup that this week’s cabinet meeting decided will run the project of absorbing Greece’s share from the Next Generation EU fund.

Seeking to stimulate Greece’s battered middle class, a committee chaired by Nobel Prize-winning economist Sir Christopher Pissarides, which has been tasked with drafting a long-term growth strategy for the country, is recommending that tax rates on the incomes of private individuals in that bracket be slashed.

The government wanted to tackle the issue of retroactive dues to pensioners for good, avoiding mass court cases in the future and clearing the fiscal horizon of dangerous uncertainties.

The government will seek the support of private investments, besides those from the public coffers, for the subsidy program it will submit to the European Commission in the context of the Next Generation EU fund.

Despite the restrictions due to the pandemic, the Finance Ministry is insisting on the requirement for 30% of taxpayers’ expenditure to consist of online transactions, which if not met will entail a fine.

The online platform concerning electric mobility, through which subsidies of 100 million euros will be disbursed to the electric vehicles market, will be activated on August 24.

The Finance Ministry draft law debated on Wednesday in Parliament has had an amendment incorporated providing for the increase of the state subsidy to employer social security contributions to 100% for workers who enter the Labor Ministry’s Syn-Ergasia program from July until the end of the program on October 15.

Next month the Finance Ministry will table in Parliament the regulation about the accumulated obligations of taxpayers due to the crisis, which will be repaid in 12 interest-free tranches next year or in 24 installments in 2022 with a low interest rate.

The tax administration will impose heavy fines and even shut down businesses for up to 20 months if they are found to have been tampering with their cash registers or using illegal software systems for hiding transactions and evading value-added tax payment.

Greek bonds continued to record significant gains on Monday, even though tension between the United States and China tension and rising coronavirus infections around the world have sent traders to the safety of German securities and to gold.