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Greek Minister of Finance Yiannis Stournaras is now feverishly preparing for the new round of negotiations with the Troika. He however is not in a hurry unlike before, since he wants to gain time in order to have more data available on the progress of revenue and to strengthen the country's position in the negotiations through them.
 
He believes that the collection of property tax will increase to 82% and the initial December data show even better results.

The Troika in turn believes that the collection rate will be 78% and therefore the difference in the estimates of the tax collection made by the Greek side and the lenders amounts to 300 million euro.

If, in the meantime, the December revenues confirm the forecasts of the Greek Minister then he will gain advantage over the representative of the International Monetary Fund in the supervisory Troika, Paul Thomsen.

There are significant discrepancies in the estimates of revenue from VAT on restaurants too.

In this case, the Greek Minister of Finance expects better results as well.

For this reason, he wants to gain time and is not in a hurry, as he prefers to extend the negotiations until the Eurogroup meeting in February. Therefore, nothing will be finalised at this stage. There will be talks, but their completion will require the official reports of the 2013 revenue data.

Moreover, Minister Stournaras is trying to convince the Troika to allow the reduction of insurance contributions by 3.9 % after 1 June. The lenders’ representatives however do not want to do so because they think it will cost too much, namely about 800 million euro.

Greece’s Minister of Finance, however, believes that this will cost much less, given the favourable effects of such a measure on the economy. According to Yiannis Stournaras, such a reduction will improve the position of business, facilitate growth and will therefore bring more tax revenue.

In any case, the talks with the Troika will be extended and no decisions will be taken before mid-February.

In addition, the Greek Minister of Finance wants to create the best possible conditions for the next stage of his career.

There are indications that he will be selected for the post of Governor of the Bank of Greece at the end of April and he will leave the Ministry of Finance in May. Therefore, in the last stage of his term as Minister of Finance, he will try to create the best possible conditions for himself and for his successor.

It seems that Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has already approved the successor to Stournaras as head of the Ministry of Finance. According to sources, this person will be the adviser to the Prime Minister, Stavros Papastavrou, who has recently accompanied Yiannis Stournaras during the Eurogroup meetings and actively participated in the negotiations with the Troika.

It is also known that Stournaras has excellent impressions of his cooperation with him, in terms of both the European partners and the Troika.

In other words, Stavros Papastavrou has been training for the position of Finance Minister for some time now, enjoying the confidence of both Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and current Minister of Finance Yiannis Stournaras.
 
The question is whether Deputy Prime Minister Evangelos Venizelos will accept him and whether the presence of his name on the “Lagarde list” will hinder his appointment as Minister of Finance.